robo analysis of the wholesale govt plan, page-2

Haka - What I've seen so far provides no positives for Sigma and other Wholesalers, provides some assistance to Pharmacists to assist fee for service type activities and applies some brakes on expenditure on PBS items as usual.

Any increases in PBS expenditure over the last decade has been at the top end (cancer, Auto-immune disease etc) while at the bottom end govt costs have been reduced significantly as have turnover and margins. At the lower end it has only been the heavy discounting that has kept some pharmacy margins OK but is of little help to the wholesaler and no help to generic manufacturers.

I usually wait for good reviews to published in the trade journals to digest it all.

I would love to see the new agreement and coming Budget provide some support/incentives for the real Australian Pharma Industry. The loss of Factor F and other incentive schemes over the last decade or so has seen the partial destruction of a lot of local R&D and manufacture. It has paved the way for the imported cut price generics. The Govt is supporting "Preditory Like Pricing" by some overseas generic companies who shall go nameless. Shameful performance from the Howard and Rudd Govts!

I will possibly have more to say about the new agreement as more comes out from the various parties. It is all still much behind closed doors. The last one was months overdue before it was finalised.