Australian Pharmacists To Recommend Blackmores Over Others

Posted by John under Food

With every new example of greed an opportunity arises to do the opposite for the benefit of consumers. This week saw a perfect example with a large group of Australian pharmacists signing a deal to promote one brand of dietary supplements over others. Unfair competition? Yes! Unethical? Yes! Opportunity for other current and new pharmacists to exploit? Yes for sure!

You have to love greed sometimes. It presents a perfect opportunity to do the opposite where some examples are concerned and you can still make loads of money by doing the right thing instead of the wrong thing. Well, here is an example and it concerns the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and dietary supplements brand Blackmores.

The two struck a deal recently. Basically it means that owners of the majority of the pharmacies in Australia will “encourage” their employees (i.e. threaten to fire them if they fail to comply) to recommend Blackmores products exclusively when providing certain genuine prescription products.

According to The Age, “Blackmores chief executive Christine Holgate described the arrangement as delivering “the Coke and fries” with prescription medicines to generate “new and important revenue” for community pharmacies.” Now, there is nothing important about revenue from the dietary supplements of any brand because they are not proven to be beneficial. So basically these companies are selling more rubbish you do not need just to make more money.

If a pharmacist recommends one brand over others then they are not likely to be giving their customers the full set of information about comparable brands and what they offer. That is exactly the reason that this site exists to point out to people: they have the right to all the information they can get in order to make an informed choice. This deal between Blackmores and the Guild represents up to a third of all prescriptions that are filled in Australia each year. So there will be opportunities that will arise out of this where information presentation is concerned.

If I was interested in owning a pharmacy I would not join the Guild (it is not legally required). I would therefore offer all of these rubbish products to suckers that want them but I would offer more information about what they all do. Therein lies an opportunity for new web sites to take advantage of too. They can offer information on all of the brands and even the pharmacies that do not recommend just one brand.

In this way, consumers can make an informed choice and not support the greed of one company and its partner in crime, and instead support everyone else with some of their disposable income. That is what being a conscious consumer is all about, I believe!