Following City Press’ articles about corporates bullying smaller pharmacies out of shopping centres, more pharmacists have come forward. They say tactics include increasing rent overnight and hostile treatment from landlords after an attempted buyout fails
The Independent Community Pharmacy Association is set to ask the department of health to place a moratorium on the issuing of pharmacy licences amidICPA chief executive Jackie Maimin said the issue ofwas the biggest problem the organisation’s members complained about, and this triggered the decision to call for a moratorium.
One licence is granted per 500 people in urban areas – in rural areas, it’s one licence per 2 500 people. “We find it very unfortunate that the national department of health has bowed to pressure from big business to allow pharmacies into every mall and new shopping centre, irrespective of established pharmacies in the area and whether there is a need for them or not.Maimin said the mall requirement had made it easier for malls to have multiple pharmacies under the same roof and for smaller pharmacies to be bought out.
“These corporates sometimes even blacklist independent pharmacies by colluding with mall owners and just give them an ultimatum – either allow the large pharmacy to operate, or get less rent from a small pharmacy,” she said, adding that the ICPA had on several occasions commented on the regulation reviews, and it was advocating that only the two criteria it agrees with be retained.
According to one pharmacist, one of the major pharmaceutical companies, Clicks, approached him every year for almost a decade and, when it stopped, the landlord upped the rent by almost double and announced Clicks would be moving in less than 100m from him in the same 10-store shopping centre.
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