Guild may fight GSK in court

The Pharmacy Guild will fight in court to get compensation from GlaxoSmithKline for its members involved in the Marevan recall.

“We would rather settle it around the table than in court but, if there’s no option, then we are ready to go,” guild chief executive Annabel Young says.

Ms Young says guild lawyers have written to GSK and are awaiting a response. However, she says the standard letters GSK has sent out indicate there will be no compensation.
“That tells you that we may be heading into court.”

A written statement from GSK says from the outset the company has been committed to refunding direct expenses incurred for the recall, such as courier costs and labelling, and has done so in several instances already. However, Geoff McDonald, GSK NZ general manager, says paying pharmacists for their time in administering the recall and patient counselling is a separate challenge.

“GSK sought external advice when this type of payment was first requested and it has been determined there is no existing regulation or legislation to provide direction, or a prior example whereby a manufacturer paid compensation for administrative time or counselling.”

Mr McDonald says GSK understands why some pharmacists feel payment for their time is important, but there is no mechanism currently in place to provide for this during a recall, beyond the government fee for service.

Ms Young says the recall of Felo ER in 2002 was widely publicised and handled by GPs. According to Ms Young, the drug company involved, Pacific Pharmaceuticals, paid GPs for their time in dealing with this recall.

More recently, the Monofeme recall in 2005 was also widely publicised by Wyeth and patients were again instructed to visit their GP for further advice.

“Usually there is a lot more publicity, and the burden of work is not put on the pharmacist,” Ms Young says.

“From day one we’ve been clear that GSK can’t ask us to do this work for nothing.”

Mr McDonald says the recall has highlighted a broader industry issue around compensation for a consumer-level pharmaceutical product recall.

“It is not appropriate for GSK to make decisions in isolation as these decisions will impact the industry as a whole and will set a precedent for the future.”

However, Ms Young says the guild believes the issues surrounding this recall be dealt with separately.

“The way this recall was done posed a lot of work on pharmacy, and we want to make sure any discussion about what we do in the future doesn’t pollute how pharmacy gets compensated for what they had to do this time.”

Mr McDonald says GSK has convened a meeting among delegates from the Ministry of Health, Pharmac, Medsafe, the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand and the Researched Medicines Industry to discuss the issue.

“The Pharmacy Guild has also been invited to attend this meeting, but has not yet confirmed a representative will attend,” he says.

GSK announced a formulation error in Marevan 3mg on 28 January this year.

Community pharmacists were expected to contact all patients who had received the medicines since 23 November 2009, ask them to return the medicine, and then dispense replacement tablets.

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