France. Protests over TV service that defines pharmacists as "traders"
Fedaisf editorial staff
It has provoked the indignation and protests of a large part of the French holders the service with which, last week, the television channel M6 spoke about pharmacies and the economic crisis. Part of a serial investigation into the economic situation of commerce and consumption, the report began by defining pharmacists as "the best paid merchants in all of France". Then, to exemplify the strategies implemented by the owners in order to counter the decline in turnover and prices, he went to visit a pharmacy in Troyes belonging to the Totum circuit, a franchise famous for its hard discount positioning on non-pharmaceuticals. Then an interview with another owner, this time belonging to the Ospharm purchasing group, in which he spoke of pricing policies on free-sale products, and finally a report on the opportunities of e-commerce.
Result, a portrait of French pharmacy in which very few they recognized each other. «M6 wanted to focus only on the 20% of our activity» stigmatized USPO, one of the three national unions of pharmacy owners «hiding the remaining 80%, which represents the heart of the profession». «This is not the model we want for the pharmacy of tomorrow» the Fspf added «the image of the pharmacist that emerges from the investigation is distorted, he is portrayed as a distributor of cans intent on aping large-scale retail trade». Against the television channel, the French owners have launched a petition, to be forwarded to the Minister of Health Marisol Touraine, which has already collected a thousand signatures.
