The confederation has closely scrutinized the idea of allowing shops to sell drugs since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned it last Sunday, Songör told the Anatolia news agency on Tuesday. “This system is in effect in many countries around the world and it may be applied in Turkey as well,” he added.
The pharmacies are strictly against allowing shops to sell drugs in specifically designed stalls claiming that this will increase the number of deaths from the misuse of drugs.
What Erdoğan has in mind with the new system is to let the sale of drugs in supermarkets and shops boost competition in the pharmacy sector. “We are working on a project to enable the sale of drugs in shops and supermarkets just like in the US. We will not allow monopolies. We will further develop competitiveness in every field, otherwise, we cannot enjoy anticipated growth in the global arena,” he said.
In the US and European countries, prescription medicines, vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements can be bought in supermarket pharmacy branches under the supervision of a pharmacist.
In the US, the share of the drugstores is around 20 percent in total prescription drug sales. These markets were first established in early 1900s and later became retail chains. According to the recent figures released by the National Association of Chain Drugstores (NACDS), the size of prescribed drug sales reached $253.6 billion as of the end of 2008. Shop chains account for 10.2 percent of this volume, whereas larger supermarkets are responsible for another 9.8 percent.
A total of 21.7 percent of prescription drugs are sold via post and 17.3 percent are by independent pharmacies. The largest share belongs to the traditional chain pharmacies with 41 percent.
Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) numbers, on the other hand, demonstrate that nonprescription drugs can be found in 750,000 outlets across the US. As of the end of 2008, the revenues earned from such medicines totaled $16.8 billion in one year.
Nonprescription drugs such as painkillers, cough syrups and sedatives for epigastria and migraine are frequently used by Americans in daily life and are easily found in drugstores and many ordinary shops.
There are over 56,000 pharmacies in the US and 39,000 of them are operated by traditional retail drugstores, supermarkets and department stores. The number of independent pharmacies is around 17,000.
Songör says a similar system as in the US could be established in Turkey, too, simply by introducing the necessary regulations. “Shops are quite capable of fulfilling the sale of drugs. Besides, this will not deal a blow to drugstores. The pharmacy business will never die,” he said.
The pharmacies, on the contrary, don’t share this opinion. The president of İzmir Chamber of Pharmacies, Tuncay Sayılkan, claimed that drug sales in shops should not be put into practice in Turkey. For him, this is a strategic move by the government to have a better hand against the pharmacies before it takes its seat at the negotiating table for drug procurement contracts.
Benzer Haberler 
National
