Contractors are not business people

摘要

How on earth would Paul Burgess and Perry Melnick (PJ, 28 November 2009, pp593-4) know anything about my use or opinions of parallel imported drugs? However, if they were to ask the pharmacist managers, staff and customers of the pharmacies I previously owned in East London, they would confirm that I resisted the use of parallel imported drugs for nearly a decade because I abhorred the confusion they caused my patients because of their different form, packaging and language. It was only when my paymaster, the Department of Health, reflected on the large savings that were being made nationally by the use of parallel imported drugs and adversely adjusted the discount scale that I was, reluctantly, forced to use them.