AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

'MILLEPROROGHE' DECREE:  ANTITRUST AUTHORITY - NO TO AMENDMENTS BLOCKING NEW PARAPHARMACIES

Class C pharmaceuticals should instead be permitted

No to legislative modifications that forbid the opening of new parapharmacies - so reads the Antitrust report submitted to Government and Parliament in response to proposed amendment no. 1,206 to decree no. 225 (a.k.a. milleproroghe - the annual decree extending the life of various measures). According to the Antitrust Authority, if this proposal is passed then no new sales points could be opened. With permission from the administration of competence, existing pharmacies could either transfer to another zone within the same municipality or to a different municipality that had no pharmacy.

The Antitrust report reasserts the fact that quota restrictions on the number of pharmacies practicing in Italy translates into a form of income protection for existing pharmacies, which are too few in number to meet the needs of inhabitants in most Italian municipalities.

If the amendment were to be passed, according to the Antitrust Authority, consumers would be presented with less choice.  This would exert a negative impact on price levels and quality of service by seriously diluting the competitive effects that free development has had on this new distribution channel. To the contrary, the liberalization of pharmaceuticals distribution should be continued by increasing the number of sales points and permitting class C (prescription only) pharmaceuticals to be sold outside of pharmacies, although still in the presence of a pharmacist.

According to the Antitrust Authority, in fact, the opening of more than three thousand parapharmacies and 500 new media-based and mass distribution sales points in less than four years, with average prices that are 25% lower, represent impressive results from the perspective of competition.

The proposed amendment of the milleproroghe decree is not an isolated effort:  on multiple occasions since parapharmacies were first allowed, the Antitrust Authority has blown the whistle on proposed amendments that were intended to nullify the effects of liberalization and, in particular, to block the opening of new sales points by making the process more difficult or to create a sort of "personnel plan" for parapharmacies. President Antonio Catricalà reemphasized the Antitrust Authority position in person before Committee XII: Health and Hygiene during the Senate debate last November 11, when a draft reform law for the sector was on the floor.

Rome - February 3, 2011