Pharmacists get a taste of their own medicine

It often seems in Berlin as if every block has either a baker, a florist, an optician or a pharmacy - often a combination of the four. Particularly interesting is the high concentration of pharmacies. The Federation of German Pharmacists' Associations, the ABDA, has seen to it that Germany's drug store equivalents of Boots are forbidden by law from selling prescription medicines, the lifeline for Germany's 21,000 independent pharmacists.

But six months ago German pharmacists felt the first chill wind of competition when Dutch firm DocMorris began selling everything from cold remedies to the impotence drug Viagra over the Internet at prices cut by as much as 40 per cent. Its website (www.0800doc morris.com) has logged more than 20,000 customers in the last six months. Only drugs registered in Europe are traded on the site and medical safety is guaranteed under Dutch standards. Prescription drugs are available once the customer sends a corresponding doctor's prescription. DocMorris has inflamed the federation which has taken him to court no fewer than three times in its first half year of trading.

Courts in Stuttgart and Berlin ruled that DocMorris could continue trading but a judge in Frankfurt ruled the site should be banned in Germany. Following the Frankfurt verdict DocMorris no longer sells drugs to Germans but rather "German-speaking Europeans".

The contradictory verdicts have left the firm free to continue trading.

But the pharmacists have not given up. The federation held a conference in Berlin last year to rubbish the idea of ordering drugs over the Internet, saying the number of drugs offered online was too limited, the dispatch unreliable and too time-consuming.

But this argument shows how the pharmacists have missed the point. The biggest interest in DocMorris has come from the most attractive market for the company: chronically ill people and those who buy drugs in bulk for long-term use.

German health insurers which have to pay for highly expensive brand name medications are also interested in getting the lowest prices. They have opened talks with DocMorris.

Even before DocMorris arrived last year German pharmacists knew the writing was on the wall. In 1998 the ABDA joined forces with German physicians and succeeded in pushing through a law banning the mail-order of drugs. But now they have been caught in their own trap.

German pharmacies are allowed only to offer consulting services over the Internet, while DocMorris is pushing its way into Germany and is capturing a share of a drug market worth more than 50 billion deutschmarks (€27 billion) in sales last year.

But for the moment sick Berliners can console themselves that no matter where they are in the city, there are more than 10,000 drugs available in the local pharmacy.