We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to maintain the ban on Vets charging for prescriptions.”
Details of Petition:
“There has been a three year moritorium on vets charging for pet prescriptions This was done to create competetion and lower the price of prescription medicines for animals. If the moretorium ends the Vets will go back to charging up to £15 for writing out a prescription and negate any potential savings and maintian their monopoly. This is the reverse of the MMC recomendations.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Government is committed to delivering free and fair markets, with greater competition, for businesses, consumers and employees.
That is why the Government introduced the Supply of Veterinary Medicinal Products Order in 2005 to create a market for veterinary medicines away from veterinary surgeries. The Order was introduced following a Competition Commission report which found that the veterinary profession tended to understate the true cost of their professional services and offset this in their medicines pricing. This practice can allow two detrimental effects:
· Veterinary surgeons can hide excess profits in drug prices; and
· Inadequate pressure on manufacturers to maintain competitive drug prices.
The Competition Commission felt strongly that a three-year moratorium on prescription charges was essential to allow animal owners to become used to the availability of free prescriptions and encourage them to shop around. The availability of prescriptions was seen as the key element in opening up the prescription-only veterinary medicines market, increasing competitive pressure and driving prices down. High prescription charges had been a barrier to customers doing this in the past, but the three-year prohibition would kick-start the market.
The independent Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will be monitoring developments after the prohibition on charging for providing prescriptions comes to an end in October 2008 and will consider when and whether any further regulatory action may be needed to ensure effective competition in the supply of veterinary medicines.
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