00:00Small retail pharmacies are forming what they believe will be a formidable alliance
00:06against what they say is the monopoly of local big pharmacies.
00:11With the bulk buying group that we currently have of 40 members,
00:15each one of us has been buying deals individually and sharing it amongst all our members.
00:22This company is going to be set up within the next three months, hopefully for January,
00:26where you will have the name of the company, Alliance Group of Pharmacies.
00:34So you have 10 Superfarm, you have 10 M-Farm, you have 10 Pennywise.
00:39We're going to have 40 X-Farm Group of Alliance Pharmacies.
00:46The president of the Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association, Glenway & Suchet,
00:51says small retail pharmacies have been suffering many hardships due to unfair trading practices.
00:58We have noticed that many of the smaller distributors have been losing lines to the major distributors.
01:07And with every change in ownership, we are seeing significant price increases.
01:13And these price increases now making it extremely difficult for retailers to buy and for consumers to purchase.
01:19So it's basically forcing a drop in your sales.
01:22The Alliance has thus far been successful in registering and importing 10 pharmaceutical products and are working on 10 more.
01:30If we get a 10% discount, 2% will remain with the company, which is the cover operating costs.
01:37We're housing, three or four staff deliveries.
01:40If we get 20% discount, 7%, 5% will remain with the company.
01:46You all will get 15%.
01:47If we get a 20% as we have been getting, 7%, 8% will remain with the company to cover expenses.
01:54So you all will be getting 10% to 25% discount on some of your fast-selling items in any quantity that you want.
02:03The association recently met with the Minister of Trade, and it says the feedback has been very encouraging.
02:10Mr. Kamar Maraj has agreed that he is not putting no board on the Fair Trade Commission for a while.
02:17He told us he is the board.
02:20He is handling everything right now.
02:22So every single thing that we said we want done, he is 100% on board to bring in new legislation to the Fair Trade Commission.
02:32We have already presented everything to him.
02:34So it's just a matter of time now.
02:37Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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