Chile: Collusion once again in pharmacy sector

Mauricio Acevedo, president of Chile’s National Federation of Drug-store Workers, has decried a new case of unfair collusion between pharmaceutical laboratories and drugstores. This comes a few weeks after a high-profile case involving the country’s three largest drugstore chains.

“The drugstores buy from big laboratories, with commercial agreements… and we are imposed with the need to sell them” said the group’s president. “…we are obligated, we have been set targets. For example, if you come in for some paracetamol, I have to somehow sell you ibuprofen as well… so there is still an incentive to oversell medication.”

The drugstore workers “are forced to sell medication each day… that the client doesn’t need… We don’t want to make a living by tricking the population, because we are also consumers of medication.” Added Mr. Acevedo.

Source: Radio Sol

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