This week's move by the B.C. Ministry of Health to cut the price of generic drugs has at least one North Vancouver pharmacist concerned about the ability of small independent businesses like his to survive.
Generic drugs currently cost about 40 per cent of their brand name counterparts in British Columbia. By April 2, generic drugs will be available at 35 per cent of the price of major label drugs.
The province is also planning to introduce legislation this spring to slash the price of generic drugs to 25 per cent of name brand drugs by April 1, 2013.
Mosi Shareei, who has been running North West Pharmacy on Marine Drive in North Vancouver for the past 10 years, said the government's policy may make it difficult for small businesses to compete.
"With this new policy, large corporations will survive, the small corporations will disappear," he said. "The benefits of large corporations will be protected through their own wholesalers."
"This is about protecting the investment in the health care system," said Ryan Jabs, media relations officer with the B.C. Ministry of Health.
At the moment, Shareei said North West Pharmacy is not as profitable as it used to be.
"Our income has been reduced, but on the other side the government added to the number of the generic medications."
The decision to dissolve the generic pricing agreement with the B.C. Pharmacy Association came as a complete surprise, according to BCPhA media liaison Kate Hunter, who said she heard the news less than an hour before the government made the announcement.
"We're certainly disappointed," Hunter said. "Our priority now is really to try and understand what government is proposing, understand what the legislation means . . . and then to see if we can continue working with government."
The provincial government signed a three-year contract with BCPhA in 2010, but after the government failed to see any substantial savings, Jabs said the province decided to reopen negotiations last October.
"We couldn't get them down any further," Jabs said, discussing a challenging negotiation process.
Negotiations with the province were ongoing, according to Hunter.
"We'd been in negotiations with government since October of last year but to be perfectly honest with you, that dialogue was continuing, it was very constructive, and so we were not expecting the announcement that happened this morning. We were continuing to stay at the table to maintain the discussions with government, and that was literally right through to the announcement being made," Hunter said.
If the provincial government succeeds in dropping the price on generic drugs, the savings will be substantial, according to Jabs.
"We can save at least that $170 million and more," he said, referring to the period between April 2012 and April 2013. "So we'll recoup what we didn't see over the last couple years."
The money saved by the government will be reinvested in PharmaCare, as well as funding pharmacy services such as remote pharmacies, according to a release from the Ministry of Health.
