ANTITRUST APPROVES AUTOMATS FOR OVER-THE-COUNTER PHARMACEUTICALS
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
ANTITRUST APPROVES AUTOMATS FOR OVER-THE-COUNTER PHARMACEUTICALS
Recommendation sent to both Houses of Parliament,
to the Government and to the Ministry of Health
Make it possible to install self-service machines outside pharmacies for the distribution of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, as a service to consumers. That is the position expressed by the Italian Competition Authority in a recommendation sent to the Presidents of the House and Senate, to the Prime Minister, to the Minister for Regional Affairs and to the Minister of Health.
In the recommendation, approved on 14 September, the Authority reiterates the need to liberalize the distribution of over-the-counter medicines, extending their sale to supermarkets, and recommends modifying Article 9 bis of law no. 405 of 16 November 2001, or at least interpreting it in a non-restrictive manner.
The regulation this recommendation deals with foresees “free, direct access by citizens to self-administered medicines”, stipulating that such access must be “in a pharmacy”. The Authority believes the term “in a pharmacy” should be deleted, so as to ensure the citizen’s right of free and direct access to medicines for which no medical prescription is required.
In the recommendation, the Authority also expresses its views on the interpretation to be given to the regulation: according to the pharmacists’ representative bodies, and the Ministry of Health itself, the law prohibits the installation in pharmacies of automats which are accessible when the pharmacy is closed: the expression “in a pharmacy”, they believe, means that the sale of medicines, including those not requiring a prescription, must take place inside the pharmacy during its opening hours and under the supervision of the pharmacist.
The Authority, instead, believes in a different interpretation which would allow the installation of self-service automats with access from the street: the automat would still be part of the pharmacy and, above all, the products would be loaded into it by the qualified pharmacist, thus guaranteeing his participation and responsibility in the distribution of medicines. These automats could carry notices making it easier for the consumer to receive professional advice on the medicines thus distributed (for example, the address and phone number of the local emergency doctor).
All this would be of undoubted benefit to consumers by making pharmaceutical products more easily available.
Rome, 23 September 2005