The Victorian Pharmacy Authority (“VPA”) has announced that it is set to begin stricter investigations into complex pharmacy licence applications to ensure compliance with the Pharmacy Regulations Act 2010 (Vic).
In December 2016, the VPA commissioned PharmConsul to conduct an independent external review of its licence application and renewal processes. In response to the recommendations made by PharmConsult, the VPA has announced that it supports the recommendations of the review and the outcomes of the recommendations seek to achieve. The Final Report can be accessed here.
The VPA has established an internal committee, and engaged extensively with external lawyers, accountants and auditors in planning significant changes to the approval processes for new pharmacy premises.
The measures are seen as likely to impact on pharmacies launching under a range of strongly-branded franchise groups, involving increased scrutiny of pharmacy business commercial arrangements.
New applications involving complex business arrangements now face heavier scrutiny and could potentially be referred to external lawyers or accountants for review.
The VPA has warned that the new process may result in increased costs to licensees as well as extended processing times.
Guidelines on pharmacy business commercial arrangements are currently being developed. Publications of these is expected to commence this month.
Read VPA's media alert here.