OCTOBER 2015
Did you know this about the Finnish pharmacy system?
In Finland, there is one pharmacy for every 6,600 inhabitants. In light of this information, there should be approximately 814 pharmacies in Finland.
The roots of the pharmacy date back to the Middle Ages, and traditionally pharmacists have prepared the medicines they sell themselves. Today, however, almost all medicines are manufactured in pharmaceutical factories. The first pharmacies in Finland began operating in 1689.
In Finland, a pharmacist must be a pharmacist by training. In European practice, pharmacy activities - the sale of medicines - are much more liberal and the main difference from Finnish practice is that elsewhere in Europe, pharmacists are not the wealthiest "entrepreneurs" in their locality, as is the case in Finland. The Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea issues pharmacy licenses and decides on the establishment of new pharmacies and all branch pharmacies. In Finnish practice, a pharmacist usually changes when the previous pharmacist reaches retirement age or is given another, even larger pharmacy to manage. However, a pharmacy license expires when the pharmacist reaches the age of 68.
In Finland, the word "pharmacy" is as free to use as elsewhere in Europe and does not enjoy any kind of protection. Anyone can establish a business called "pharmacy", but only those with a pharmacy license can sell medicines. The supplements, creams and vitamins sold in pharmacies have been one of the sources of pharmacists' high salaries for years, and when supermarkets and various online pharmacies have entered the market, competition has caused great resentment among pharmacists and unjustified smearing of competitors.
Traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies and the Finnish pharmacy system have not faced any competition for over 400 years, but have been able to price their products and especially the margin they receive quite freely. The lack of professional skills of pharmacists in business management has become very apparent in this context, as the Association of Pharmacists and pharmacists strive to keep pharmacies in Finland in a monopoly position, which would guarantee the possibility of cashing out the poor, the elderly and the unemployed with hard-earned monopoly pricing for the next 400 years.
Elsewhere in Europe and the Nordic countries, pharmacy monopolies and comparable systems have been abolished, with the result that the prices of medicines and health products have fallen significantly. All consumers have benefited from this. The number of shops selling medicines and health products has also increased significantly, which has increased the choice of consumers. It is time to stop making millions of incomes for pharmacists on illnesses and welcome lower prices and free competition to the last protected entrepreneurship in Finland.
In Finland, Alko operates in a similar way to the pharmacy system from the customer's perspective. The difference, however, is that the large profits from high-priced products do not go to the "pharmacist" of the local Alko store, but directly to the taxman. Unlike pharmacists, we get our money back from the taxman in the form of various products and services provided by society.
Whenever someone in society finds a product with a disproportionately high sales margin, competition and competing companies with competing products quickly emerge. Competition automatically results in a decrease in prices and a reduction in company profits to a reasonable level. Pharmacists have gained a position in society that allows them to call anyone who tries to compete with them a fraud and a liar. This only shows that when you are used to making money by robbing at the expense of the elderly, lonely and disadvantaged people. Not a single pharmacist seems to have a conscience, even if the last money from Kouva's grandmother goes into an overpriced lime jar – The average salary of pharmacists is €24,000 / Month
We welcome Europeanism and free competition to our society, so that every citizen can receive safe products, but always at a reasonable price. Freedom of enterprise is the foundation of a functioning society. Consumer freedom of choice is a force that drives society forward.
The Finnish Pharmacists' Association has tried to falsely label the SuomenApteekki online store as a scam. However, the Finnish pharmacy system is a billion-euro “scam” and a huge income transfer from sick people and people in need of medicine, from the underprivileged in society, to the rich pharmacist elite. According to YLE news, pharmacists also engage in tax evasion http://yle.fi/uutiset/apteekkari_alentaa_verojaan_yhtioittamalla/6881064
Onnibus brought the outdated VR Group and the old bus companies to their knees with a new way of operating, from which the entire Finnish people have benefited. A similar change is needed elsewhere. Suomen Apteekki wants to be a progressive and new kind of company, taking the world in a better direction bit by bit.
Best regards
SuomenApteekki staff