The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Democratic National Alliance’s (DNA) former leader yesterday gave “thanks to God” that the pharmaceutical industry’s lower-margin price control regime has ended, adding: “We took a little bit of a beating on that.”

Branville McCartney, whose family owns Wilmac’s Pharmacy on Poinciana Drive, told Tribune Business he was “very appreciative” that the Davis administration had fulfilled its promise by allowing the temporary price control structure it imposed on the sector to expire as planned on Tuesday, January 17.

“The Government has lived up to the agreement we had. Thank God,” he said. “We’re very appreciative of that. We’ve gone back to the prices from the period prior to those new price controls three months ago. I am most pleased to say that a deal is a deal, and the Government lived up to it as well as the pharmacies adhering to what was negotiated. Both parties lived up to the deal.

“I can only speak to my pharmacy but we took a little beating on that. There were so many other factors that had to be taken into consideration, not only the lower price control margins but the circumstances that existed prior to that and what pharmacies did.”

Mr McCartney said there was a misconception that Bahamian pharmacies earned significant revenues and profits during COVID-19’s peak. He explained that this was not the case, certainly at his family’s pharmacy and likely with many others, because they ended up providing cut-price or free medications to persons who had lost their jobs and income and had no means of affording them.

“Many people thought a pharmacy made a whole lot of money in the pandemic, but in many cases we had long-standing customers who lost their jobs and needed medications but could not pay for them,” Mr McCartney recalled. “My policy in here was: ‘Let’s do what we can’.

“We were all in an emergency state. For those persons who have supported you for over 25 years and need medications, what are you going to do? Turn them back because they cannot pay? Hell no. We accommodated those people to our detriment. Those people were there for us when we started many years ago, and when they needed our assistance we gave it to them free of charge.

“Many patients came in who were not working but needed medication. Our policy was to help them come what may. I’m sure we were not the only pharmacy to do that. I’m sure other pharmacies did the same thing to assist their patients in helping them to meet their needs,” Mr McCartney added. “Our first priority was the health and welfare of our customers.

“It’s been rough, very rough, but we are still doing business and intend to move forward and will continue to build. It’s been very difficult because of the price control restrictions put in place, but it’s not just price control. There are increasing electricity bills, the increasing cost of product, all around increases in taxes. It has an effect, but we keep moving forward.”

Pharmaceutical price controls have now reverted back to the regime that existed prior to early November 2022 in accordance with the Government’s Order, which mandated that the lower margin structure that expired yesterday would only be implemented for three months until January 17, 2023, in a bid to ease the cost of living crisis.

The three-month regime was agreed by the Government and pharmaceutical industry as a means to settle the dispute that erupted after the former, without any consultation, introduced changes that slashed both retail and wholesale margins in an effort to combat inflation.

The sector and the Davis administration ultimately traded-off higher mark-ups with an expanded list of price controlled items that increased by ten medications. As a result, for just over two months, pharmaceutical wholesalers and retailers enjoyed one set mark-up across the board, at 20 percent and 40 percent respectively, for all price-controlled items in a move that simplified the structure.

It placed the price control mark-ups for wholesalers at a slightly higher level than the Government was initially proposing, between 15-18 percent, but some five percentage points less than the 25 percent they have enjoyed for the past 40 years. The wholesale industry is now reverting back to that 25 percent.

As for retail pharmacies, the agreed 40 percent was at the top end of the range initially proposed by the Government. The Davis administration had sought a cut to between 35 percent to 40 percent, but the mark-up was ultimately some ten percentage points less (a 20 percent reduction in percentage terms) than the 50 percent that pharmacies have enjoyed for the past decade. Retailers now go back to 50 percent

In return for the Government keeping the margins at the upper end of its target range, the pharmacy industry also agreed to expand the price-controlled medications by ten items to include cancer and kidney treatment drugs.