Pharmacy

The dynamic nature of the pharmacy sector continues to bring about significant change, especially in pharmacy ownership and practice. The profession is tightly regulated and operates in a highly commercial and competitive environment. Our pharmacy team is recognised as a leading pharmacy law practice in Australia and we have a strong understanding of this environment. With our personal approach and intimate knowledge of the pharmacy profession, we assist clients in dealing with the legal and ethical issues that present themselves in day-to-day operations.

We are a principal legal adviser to the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, a number of its state branches, and a number of the pharmacy educator institutes. We work closely with all lead organisations in the pharmacy sector including insurers, Pharmaceutical Defence Limited and brokers. Our pharmacy client base extends to over 1000 professionals in the industry from individual pharmacists to large banner groups.

Key services 

Corporate and Commercial

  • Advising on the buying and selling of pharmacy businesses
  • Advising on retail leases, lease disputes, and retail leases legislation
  • Advising on PBS approval for new and relocating pharmacies
  • Advising on and managing business restructures
  • Advice on debt refinancing
  • Advice on entering, exiting, or establishing partnerships, including business succession planning
  • Resolving partnership, shareholder or unit-holder disputes
  • Advice on pharmacy group structures including advising on and preparing banner group, franchise, and other member documentation
  • Advising on privacy complaints
  • Advising on defamation and managing online reviews
  • Advising on Ministerial Discretion applications

For information on buying and selling pharmacies, please contact:

For information on commercial litigation and dispute resolution, including defamation and Ministerial Discretion applications, please contact:

Workplace Relations and Safety

  • Managing and advising on unfair dismissal claims, general protections disputes, bullying and discrimination claims
  • Employee misconduct and performance management advice
  • Developing employment contracts and workplace policies

For information on workplace relations and employment, please contact:

Insurance

  • Defending professional negligence claims
  • Defending public liability claims
  • Advising on and managing disciplinary matters
  • Coronial inquests
  • Private health fund and Medicare investigations

For information on insurance, please contact:

Related Experiences

  • Successfully appealing a decision by Queensland Health to cancel a pharmacist’s endorsements under the Health (Drugs & Poisons) Regulation 1996 for three years (the Tribunal substituted its decision to cancel for two years).
  • Successfully obtained judgment in the Supreme Court of NSW requiring a vendor of a pharmacy to purchase the pharmacy back from the original purchaser, following misrepresentations as to revenue and profitability made by the vendor in the sale process.
  • Providing advice to a large pharmacy banner group (more than 90 pharmacies) on the application of pharmacy ownership laws to its financial structuring arrangements.
  • Regulatory advice in the health and pharmaceutical sectors including advice on pharmacy location rules.
  • Acting for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia in the review of the Pharmacy Industry Award, including on the adjustment to weekend and public holiday penalty rates.
  • Acting for a pharmacy owner on a discrimination claim made against the owner and other senior staff.
  • Advising a pharmacy owner to respond to sexual harassment allegations made by an employee.
  • Defending a pharmacy owner in an unfair dismissal claim.
  • Successfully resolving a complex breach of employment contract and general protections dispute commenced against an employer in the Federal Court.
  • Reviewing and amending a pharmacy employer’s employment contracts and workplace policies.
  • Preparing letters of engagement and employment contracts for a pharmacy owner purchasing a business.

Resources

Insights

Dispensing with inappropriate behaviour – a guide for pharmacists

Cyber Security Awareness Month – Are you cyber aware?

Pharmacy Location Rules – understanding the process for PBS approval in large medical centres

Buying and selling a pharmacy | Why it makes good business sense to partner with a lawyer

Deal or No Deal: from handshakes, heads of agreement to contracts – what’s legally binding, and what’s not?

Convicted health professionals may face registration suspension

Are the Australian Privacy Reforms on your radar?

Pharmacy Sale and Purchase Update

New regulations are now in force for all health practitioners and organisations in NSW

Online Reviews & Defamation

The Privacy Landscape in Australia following the introduction of the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme in 2018

Complex Compounding – How does a pharmacist prove competency?

Pharmacists: are you ready for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout?

Real time prescription monitoring: assisting practitioners to make better informed prescribing decisions

Pitfalls of promoting health services on social media

The value of a pharmacy partnership or shareholder agreement

Federal Court of Australia confirms Professional Services Review (PSR) has the power to order part repayments

No half doses in pharmacy ownership

Pharmacy relocation – tips for navigating the critical steps

Using the new MBS telehealth item numbers to care for patients from home? Here are some of the risks and limitations for medical practitioners

A reminder on section 130 of the National Law: notify the National Boards of ‘certain events’, or face a possible finding of unprofessional conduct

Professional Services in New South Wales – approval is required

Bushfire Emergency Declaration

Help! I’m being Audited

AHPRA releases revised Guidelines for Mandatory Notifications about registered health practitioners

Audio and Video Records – are they legal?

Owing prescriptions – are you courting danger?

Payroll tax clampdown on healthcare clinic operators

Electronic Prescriptions

You have received a notification – what now?

What happens to healthcare complaints in Western Australia?

Pharmacy Workplace Relations – Hot Topics

Directors’ Duties

Be Data Smart

Applications for new PBS Approvals or relocations of existing PBS approvals

Steroids and hormone therapies – Off label use or misuse/abuse?

How can you tell if you have been given a forged prescription and what to do if you have

What are pharmacists’ obligations when supplying pseudoephedrine?

Medication Misadventure – Methotrexate: A reminder to pharmacists to exercise independent judgment about the safety of a prescribed medicine.

‘SafeScript’ Roll-out: An update for practitioners on important regulatory changes from 1 July 2018

Recent trends in buying and selling pharmacies

Pharmacy Franchise Law – tips for franchisees

Misuse, interference or loss of personal information by pharmacists – new mandatory notifications for data breaches

Expanding or contracting your pharmacy? Don’t forget Pharmacy Location Rule 121

Victoria to roll out real-time prescription monitoring system in 2018

Pharmacy insights – Spring 2017

A reminder for pharmacists: exercise caution when dispensing Schedule 3 Poisons

‘Phillips arrangements’: It may be time to review your service company arrangements

Beware of altered, forged or fraudulent prescriptions: a reminder for pharmacists

Real-time prescription monitoring: what does it mean for health practitioners?

Succession planning for your partnership

Pharmacy location rules: Who are ‘persons aggrieved’ by new approvals?

Nurofen Specific Pain claims: Federal Court finds misleading conduct

Online pharmacy retailer pays $32,400 for misleading product pricing

Aim for a pain-free goodbye

The changing state of play: The natural evolution of the professional regulation of pharmacy

Meridian Lawyers assists with NAPSA’s constitution overhaul

Schedule 8 medications: A disturbing trend in storage and record keeping

Pharmacy alert: maintaining script certifications