00:00According to President of the Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association, Glenwayne Suchet,
00:05a serious monopoly exists in the pharmaceutical market through Aventa,
00:10a pharmaceutical distributor under Agostini Limited.
00:14Superfarm and M-Farm are also owned by Agostini Limited.
00:18Actually, Aventa controls 74% of the pharmaceutical private market.
00:23Two companies, Aventa 34% and Bryden 50%,
00:27they control 50% of the tender market for public procurement.
00:33Suchet says 70% of the wholesale market is collectively controlled by Aventa and two other entities.
00:40The Association for the States that of around 900 essential drugs,
00:44such as those to treat cancer, diabetes and other illnesses,
00:49Aventa is in control of about 700 of those.
00:52The Association says that there are around 500 independent pharmacies
00:56and according to Suchet, they are disadvantaged because of Aventa's distribution to its own retail chains,
01:03as well as being the distributor to small pharmacies,
01:07which are said to rely on Aventa for around 74% of their overall stock.
01:12Suchet has told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee
01:16that during the COVID-19 pandemic, when vitamin C was in high demand,
01:21independent pharmacies were denied Redoxon.
01:23On the grounds that the accountant at Aventa will not sell to pharmacies
01:30and take the risk of selling and not getting payment in time
01:35and sell all to superfarm, that is unfair trading.
01:39The Association further alleges that in some cases,
01:43they are forced to purchase pharmaceuticals at a higher wholesale price
01:46than the retail price at which Agostini-owned pharmacies sell the drugs at.
01:51The Association wrote to the Fair Trading Commission seeking intervention
01:55but did not lodge a formal complaint,
01:58which PAAC Chairman Jagda was saying notes shouldn't be an issue.
02:02Would you not agree with me
02:03that there is no statutory requirement for any formal complaint to be made?
02:10The Commission, although outlining in its second letter to the Association
02:26that there were grounds for a prima facie case,
02:29requested that the Association send information,
02:32including documentation on the companies in question,
02:34instead of launching an investigation.
02:37You seek to shift the onus on the complainant?
02:40How is that even possibly tenable?
02:43We also have to recognise the resource limitations that the Commission faces.
02:49I beg your pardon, Mr Narain Singh?
02:52And we need to investigate, we need an alignment,
02:56it's an ecosystem, so to speak,
02:58where we need the cooperation of the entities as well.
03:02All right, you need the cooperation of which entities?
03:04The entities that have concerns.
03:07Executive Director of the Commission,
03:09Bevan Narain Singh, has been taken to task.
03:12As Singh says the Commission has the power
03:14to request the privately held documentation,
03:17it was asking the Association to acquire from the companies in question.
03:21Narain Singh, in turn,
03:22blames the lack of action on the Commission
03:24not having a board since May of this year.
03:27For one to go on and act
03:30for a person without the authorisation of a board,
03:35one has to be very careful to do that
03:37and to launch an investigation.
03:39We have never launched an investigation of this nature before.
03:42The Commission has been asked by the PAAC
03:45to provide detailed information
03:47on all of the steps it took
03:49since the matter was brought to its attention.
03:52Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
03:54For more information, visit www.fema.org.
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