Don’t be surprised if you find yourself stuck behind a chocolate lab, a Scottish Fold and a guinea pig when searching for cold medicine at the pharmacy in years to come.
A Competition Bureau initiative would expand the distribution of pet medicines beyond veterinary practices, which the competition watchdog says could help control rising costs associated with owning a pet.
“This issue is very relevant to Canadians because it impacts both their wallets and the well-being of their pets,” says Youssef Zine, one of the lead researchers behind the efforts. of the Competition Bureau to expand the distribution of pet medications.
The costs of owning a pet have exploded in recent years, Zine and colleagues noted in a report released this week. Data from Statistics Canada shows that Canadian households collectively spent some $7.4 billion on pet food and medications in 2022, up from $5.7 billion in 2019.
The costs of owning just one dog or cat can reach thousands of dollars per year for the average household.
The Competition Bureau said inflation and a shortage of veterinarians contribute to rising prices for pet owners, as does a lack of competitive forces in the industry.
Zine argues that pet parents could save money by disrupting the current model in which the majority of pet medications go directly from manufacturer to distributor to prescribing veterinarian.
“In our opinion, this lack of competition in the market leads to higher prices and limited options, making it difficult for pet owners to find affordable and convenient options for prescribing their pets,” a he told Global News.
The proposed solution? Make it easier for pet owners to bring certain veterinarian prescriptions to be filled at a community pharmacy.
How animal care could change
It’s a model already playing out in Quebec after the provincial pharmacists’ association successfully lobbied for access to a national pet medication distributor. Pet prescriptions can also be filled on a limited basis at certain Ontario specialty pharmacies.
Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association, says it’s a model that makes sense to him. The freedom to choose where you fill a prescription for human medicines is a “central principle” of the Canadian healthcare system, he told Global News.
Receive weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information every Sunday.
“I think the same principle applies to consumers when it comes to giving their pets medication and understanding that they have a choice,” he says.
Dr. Tim Arthur, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and himself a veterinarian in Ottawa, told Global News that extending pet medications to community pharmacies would be a “new concept for your average veterinarian.” , but he sees some possible advantages: depending on how the model is integrated.
On the one hand, separating the veterinarian visit from the pharmacy visit can be a game-changer for Canadians living in remote or rural communities who may have to drive several hours to get an appointment with their veterinarian, if they have one.
Arthur says that in cases where he can diagnose a pet’s problems via telemedicine, he could have the owner fill the prescription at a local pharmacy rather than having to ship the medication, which would add cost and hassle. delays in the process.
“I think access to care would improve if veterinary drugs became available in human pharmacies,” Arthur says.
But he also worries about the quality of care provided to Canadians’ four-legged friends if the filling of prescriptions is no longer routinely entrusted to veterinarians.
Pharmacists don’t have the same understanding of animal physiology as their human patients, he notes, which can affect the checks and balances that should be built into a system.
If a doctor prescribes a dose of a medication but neglects how it interacts with another medication or prescribes an excessive amount, a pharmacist can detect it.
Similarly, Arthur says that if he prescribes acetaminophen to a cat, his technologist at his office will likely ask him if he intended to write aspirin instead, since the former is toxic to the kittens.
“And I’ll say, ‘Thank God you figured that out,'” Arthur said. “If I send the same scenario to a pharmacist, they won’t have a clue. And that worries me.
Bates agrees that there needs to be an educational element to expanding the distribution of pet medications to pharmacy networks. These additional resources and training are available, and he expects such a change to occur over the course of a few years, giving pharmacists time to prepare for a broader rollout.
Such changes to pharmaceutical distribution should be legislated at the provincial and territorial levels.
Despite recent efforts to expand the role of pharmacists in Ontario – giving them the power to write prescriptions for a growing number of minor and common ailments, for example – Bates says the OPA would welcome the changes and does not believe not that they would. considerably burden the system.
“We are well prepared to be able to take on additional tasks,” he says. “It’s just a matter of demand management.”
Expanding the distribution of pet medications to pharmacies probably won’t make life easier for veterinarians, who are already facing financial difficulties, Arthur says.
Software used in veterinary practices to write and fill prescriptions is streamlined for a single distribution channel. To fill prescriptions elsewhere, Arthur says veterinarians will likely need to print, fax, then rescan the files to keep their records up to date.
As for price, Arthur says he sees an opportunity to save money on the drugs themselves.
If the model is implemented in the same way as human drugs in Ontario pharmacies, where pharmacists are limited in the extent to which they can mark up a product, Arthur says the end consumer could realize savings.
However, he adds that there is a convenience cost to having to make several trips between the veterinarian and the pharmacy.
Pharmaceuticals are indeed a “profit center” for veterinarians, Arthur says, but it’s not a significant profit center: almost 10 percent of a veterinarian’s income. But risks to that revenue come when veterinarians struggle with labor shortages and pay significant costs to attract and retain staff, in addition to inflationary forces elsewhere in the industry.
“We are already facing many economic difficulties. And the last thing we really need is to lose 10 percent of our potential profits and still have to balance our books somehow,” says Arthur.
If that revenue source were diminished or eliminated altogether, he says veterinarians could be forced to increase their costs on other services to make up the difference. Then, he says, pet owners will find themselves faced with both a growing veterinary bill and having to pay for medications at their local pharmacy.
“That money will have to be recovered from somewhere,” Arthur said. “So there is an outside chance that your costs will actually increase. »
And while this model could improve access to care for people living in remote communities, Arthur says there are cases where the opposite could be true.
For those who live in small towns and avoid vet visits and fill a prescription at the pharmacy, that vet might decide that running a business in a small community isn’t worth it when they could be earning more money in town.
“And that wouldn’t be good for anyone,” Arthur said.
Zine says the aim of the Competition Bureau’s report is not to “replace vets”, but to give consumers more choice in the system as it is, which will hopefully lead to better outcomes for pet parents and their furry family members.
“We understand how important veterinarians are to the health of pets,” he says. “We believe that through competition, consumers benefit not only from a convenience perspective, but also from a price perspective. »
