PHARMACISTS

Denmark leads Europe in the pharmacy world; though not in a good way. There is a pharmacy for every 17,252 inhabitants here, which is almost twice as many as in Sweden and almost four times the E.U. average (4,503). Both Germany and France are below the E.U. average, though nowhere near Greece, which has one pharmacist for every 1,035 inhabitants. I suppose that with their economic problems, there must be a fair demand for anti-depressants.

Medicines can be dangerous, so you need to know what you are doing. But Danes seem to have a peculiar aversion to letting anybody other than qualified pharmacists anywhere near them. Part of it is historical; the state has been regulating the market since 1546. But current legislation also covers where pharmacies may be set up, who can own them (non-qualified pharmacists should not apply, even if they employ pharmacists to run them), their opening times, the prices of medicines, and much else. Perhaps the worst aspect is a complicated system, whereby part of the profits from pharmacies in rich, crowded areas like Copenhagen are recycled to pharmacies in poor, deserted places like West Jutland, in pretty much the same way as local authorities are compensated for social services. Basically, the amount of competition in the sector is zilch, and there is not much incentive to do anything about it.

Sweden and Norway used to have similar systems, but liberalised them some years ago. The results have been uniformly positive, with more pharmacies, lower prices, better service and more choice. Indeed, what you would expect, once competition between outlets is allowed.

A Danish pharmacist is challenging the current system on the grounds that it is anti-competitive. He has teamed up with Matas, a chain of shops selling healthcare products, and now sells medicines through 50 of their outlets. Because of this collaboration, he has been thrown out of the pharmacists' official purchasing organisation, but  is soldiering on regardless, having increased his business from 6 employees when he started to 21 today. Interestingly, he is of Indian origin. Perhaps it takes an outsider to shake up a cosy system.

Walter Blotscher