Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate perceptions of community pharmacists toward medicine pricing issues in the model of practice in Malaysia. A qualitative approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by face-to-face interview. Purposive sampling technique was used to recruit a convenient sample of full-time community pharmacists practicing in the state of Penang, Malaysia. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed. A total of 11 community pharmacists were recruited in this study. Thematic content analysis of the interviews identified three main themes: factors causing pharmaceutical price war, potential impact of price war, and recommendations to overcome price war. In general, price war phenomenon has diminished the profit margin of community pharmacists and threatened their survival. Thus, the participants anticipated that government could control medicine price. The findings in this study also highlighted that the participants were dissatisfied with the unethical practice by pharmaceutical company in offering different bonus schemes. The bonus schemes also reported as discriminatory as physicians were offered better perks compared to community pharmacists. The participants have demanded the Competition Act 2010 should be enforced effectively in current pharmacy practice. The unregulated pharmaceutical pricing issue had detrimental effects on the professionalism of community pharmacy practice in Malaysia. The study suggested that a medicine price regulation at the supply chain is needed to be implemented to curtail some unhealthy practices among Malaysian community pharmacists in future.
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