THE IRISH PHARMACIES UNION has criticised a newspaper report which claimed that some Irish chemists were imposing a mark-up of up to 354 per cent on some prescription drugs.

Today’s Irish Independent reported that some some prescription medicines cost significantly more in the Republic of Ireland than in the North because of the mark-ups being charged by pharmacists.

It carried details of one drug – Pfizer’s anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor – which cost over €65 in the Republic, but less than €49 in the North – a far greater gap than the wholesale prices for the drug in each jurisdiction.

The IPU this afternoon criticised the report, describing it as “flawed” because it did not consider the aspects of a pharmacist’s business other than the supply of medicine to private patients.

The union said pharmacists were operating “on a wafer-thin margin, with one in five pharmacists operating at a loss”.

In 2009, it said, the average pharmacist recorded a net profit of around four per cent of their total turnover – a figure which was likely to have fallen in the meantime.

The union accused the article of also ignoring the volume of medicines dispensed to people with medical cards – for which pharmacists receive a basic dispensing fee, but no actual mark-up on the drug being sold.

“Pharmacy remains a profession under massive pressure and suffering huge Government interference and the outlook for the profession remains very challenging,” the union said.

The Independent’s article carried criticisms from the HSE and the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, with the latter describing prices in Irish pharmacies as “outrageously high”.