The Minister of Health Panagiotis Kouroumplis insisted that “there is no discussion of anything requiring a prescription being sold in the super markets”, following a meeting with pharmacy representatives in Thessaloniki.
Mr. Kouroumplis explained that the government rejected the initial demand and “unfortunate obsession” of the institutions, namely that all medication be sold in the supermarkets. He stressed that with 11,500 points of sale, there is no problem in competition, nor any reason to change anything in the sale of medication.
Furthermore he noted that the government does not agree with the deregulation of the sale of non-prescription medication. He added that the government has included a provision to demand the approval of the World Health Organization and to introduce safeguards in order to keep costs in supermarkets down. Mr. Kouroumplis was confident that most non-prescription medication will remain in the pharmacies.
On the other hand, the president of the Pharmaceutical Association of Thessaloniki, Kyriakos Theodosiadis stressed that he has heard similar declarations from Mr. Kouroumplis’ predecessors and hinted towards an escalation of protest actions. Mr. Theodosiadis maintained that he would not allow one third of his sector’s turnover to end up in the supermarket chains and argued that the deregulation will have an impact on public health.
