The National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) has given the reason to the community or independent pharmacies with respect to the fact that the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and regional governments at the national level they impose bureaucratic barriers that do not allow them to develop in the market. The entity pointed out that two measures in particular “lack reasonableness.”
There were 67 entrepreneurial pharmacies who filed the complaint in August 2022, because “absurd and expensive” certifications are required, according to Jorge Lazarte, legal representative of the companies. According to the lawyer, there are more than 10,000 pharmacies in Peru subject to these restrictive guidelines.
The procedure for renewal of the certificate of Good Practices of the Pharmaceutical Office does not imply any type of control or supervision by the Minsa, but only the presentation of an affidavit, as well as the payment of some administrative fees provided for in the Single Text of Administrative Procedures Of the entity. In addition, the complainants question that a validity period has been unnecessarily assigned to the certificate and that it must be renewed periodically, as they argued.
For this reason, Indecopi considered as bureaucratic barriers the following measures, lacking technical support: the imposition of a determined validity of 6 months and 3 years for the Certificate of Good Practices and the requirement to periodically renew said certificate.
“The non-application of the measures declared unreasonable in favor of Inversiones Nazarenas EIRL and other complainants indicated in Annex 1 of this resolution is ordered. Failure to comply with the non-application mandate provided in this resolution may be penalized with a fine of up to 20 Tax Units (UIT), in accordance with the provisions of article 34 of Legislative Decree No. 1256”, indicates the Indecopi resolution. .
For his part, the Peruvian Association of Pharmacies (Aspefar) has welcomed the measure, noting that this will allow the sustainability of this type of company.
“The community pharmacy is the dream of entrepreneurship of every chemist-pharmacist passionate about the health service. It is not possible that the governing body continues to cut us off from that dream, approving laws, decrees, manuals, etc., with regulations that have no impact on medicines, much less on public health; however, they generate a high cost that makes us unsustainable, forcing us to resign,” Aspefar pointed out.
Source: Larepublica
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