NRA: Yes to "Pharmacy for the Pharmacist"

The post published on the NIA website reads, "The amendment law:

1) protects property and inheritance rights;

2) does not provide for the closure of existing community pharmacies and does not restrict their operations; any information that the amendment law will negatively affect the rights or situation of patients is false;

3) does not impose an obligation on entities operating community pharmacies or entities controlling such entities to divest pharmacies;

4) does not impose any new obligations on entities operating community pharmacies; these entities do not need to change their operations and adapt them to the new requirements, as such are not being introduced;

5) does not expropriate any entity, either directly or indirectly;

6) clarifies only the provisions of the Pharmaceutical Law in order to achieve the objectives of the Act of April 7, 2017 amending the Pharmaceutical Law (i.e., Journal of Laws 2017, item 1015), hereinafter referred to as the "Pharmacy for the Pharmacist Act";

7) does not address the right to dispose of public pharmacies and transfer their licenses, in particular, it does not provide for the obligation to dispose of pharmacies to pharmacists or pharmacists' companies;

8) does not apply to acquisition of control over entities operating pharmacies open to the public as a result of inheritance. 2 1 Article 4(4) of the Law of February 16, 2007 on the Protection of Competition and Consumers stipulates that the acquisition of control is any form of direct or indirect acquisition by an entrepreneur of powers which, separately or jointly, taking into account all legal or factual circumstances, make it possible to exert decisive influence on another entrepreneur or entrepreneurs; such powers form, in particular:

a) having directly or indirectly a majority of votes at the shareholders' meeting or the general meeting, also as a pledgee or user, or in the management of another entrepreneur (subsidiary entrepreneur), also on the basis of agreements with other persons,

(b) the power to appoint or dismiss a majority of the members of the management or supervisory board of another entrepreneur (subsidiary entrepreneur), including through agreements with other persons,

(c) the members of its management or supervisory board constitute more than half of the members of the management board of another entrepreneur (subsidiary entrepreneur),

(d) holding directly or indirectly a majority of votes in a subsidiary partnership or at the general meeting of a subsidiary cooperative, including through agreements with other persons,

(e) the right to all or part of the property of another entrepreneur (subsidiary entrepreneur), (f) a contract providing for the management of another entrepreneur (subsidiary entrepreneur) or the transfer of profits."

As highlighted by the NIA Legal Office, the amendment law introduces prohibitions on the acquisition of control of entities operating community pharmacies by specific entities.

We publish the full text of the post below: