Contents page 1 — In search of the pharmacy page 2 die — The market share of mail-order pharmacies is still low On a page
read “All of 38 hours closes in Germany pharmacy. For always” is written on the poster that hangs well visible in the input area of a pharmacy in Berlin’s Adlershof district. But can that be right? Alone on this main road on a section of maybe a thousand meters, five pharmacies.
Otherwise it looks in the almost 3,000 residents of the Celle district of Vorwerk. Here at the end of last year, closed the last pharmacy. The 69-year-old owner had been looking for several years in vain for a successor or a successor. This profit was their business economically profitable. Now the people from Vorwerk of your drugs several kilometres away, or in the Internet to get.
The examples show how different the Situation of the pharmacies depending on the location. Industry associations complain but to die a General “Pharmacy”. As the most important reasons for you to call the competition by the shipping trade and, allegedly, to low fees. It is true: pharmacies have problems everywhere, but for very different reasons. In the large cities, the business is hard, because many companies make to each other in a tight space of competition. In structurally weak regions in the country, however, it looks quite different. “If there is the country doctor gives up, this is often also the end of the pharmacy,” says the economist Justus Haucap. Then just the shopping on the Internet remains the patients often.
online pharmacies as a threat
Haucap investigated in 2011 on behalf of the liberal Initiative New Social market economy, and whether more competition between pharmacies would seriously affect the supply of drugs. Even then, there was the worry of many pharmacies could find themselves in distress. Even then, the associations of Pharmacists saw the shipping trade as a threat.
the Economist came to the conclusion that it is the much-touted Pharmacy does not give, and the more competitive the medication supply is not going to happen, because it is precisely in the country of the shipping trade could fill the gap that comes when the last pharmacy to close. In 2011, says Haucap, had to do this gap, but more to do with demographic change, and Die in the villages than with the competition from the Internet.
remuneration of pharmacists As pharmacy Finance
to be paid As a pharmacist, is defined by the law, especially in the drug price regulation. Basically, The pharmacy retains three percent of the purchase price of a drug as sales. Added to this is a flat rate of 8.35 euros per prescription packaging. The Product is sold during a night – time or emergency service, there is a surcharge of 16 cents per package. However, the pharmacies have to grant the Statutory health insurance funds and a discount. Currently, there are EUR 1.77 per pack.
up to 80 to 85 percent of sales is a pharmacy with prescription drugs, the smaller part of you is with over-the-counter products. The prescription drugs have a higher margin than the non-prescription.
The health economist Gerd Glaeske has determined that an average of seven Euro per sold package of a prescription drug. All operating costs will be paid.
Some more room for the pricing game and have the pharmacist for the over-the-counter medicines and products in the edge range of products such as cosmetics. In addition, you are allowed to negotiate purchasing discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers and health insurance companies. Such discounts typically apply when the pharmacy drugs from certain manufacturers spend in larger amounts to customers of individual insurance companies.
