Tobacco giant Philip Morris pays pharmacists incentives to dispense their VEEV vapes product

Tobacco giant Phillip Morris is offering pharmacists payments for selling its vaping product, a leaked document reveals.

EXCLUSIVE: Pharmacies will get a $275 payment from the world’s biggest tobacco company when they order its VEEV vaping product under a controversial cash for vapes scheme.

In addition, tobacco giant Philip Morris will pay chemists taking part in the scheme

*a $5 fee when they refer customers to a doctor to obtain a prescription for a vaping product.

*a $10 fee for educating a new patient about the VEEV device; and

*a ʻdispensing support paymentʼ of $5 every time they dispense a new script of the product.

The payments are outlined in a leaked invitation to chemists to take part in the “VEEV Pharmacy Program” run through the pharmacy IT solutions group PharmaPrograms.

The secret incentive program has been slammed as “disgraceful” by QUIT director Sarah White.

“You have a health organisation, collaborating with one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, to incentivise pharmacists to secretly push a tobacco company product,” she said.

“We know community pharmacists are incredibly trusted by their community and something like this is just so cynical and could completely ruin the trust that the community has in pharmacists.

“How can a patient trust a community pharmacist if that community pharmacist is being incentivised to push something on them?” she asked.

Quit director Sarah White has slammed the pharmacy vaping program. Picture: Supplied

In October last year nicotine containing vapes became a prescription only product in Australia for use in smoking cessation.

The measure was introduced to try and control the use of the products as concerns grow they have become a gateway product to tobacco smoking for teenagers and young Australians.

PharmaPrograms denied the scheme was an attempt to get chemists to encourage their customers to ask a doctor to prescribe the Philip Morris product, over other brands of vapes.

“It is incorrect to say that pharmacists are paid for providing patients with a referral letter recommending VEEV. Under no circumstances will a referral contain a recommendation for any brand,” a spokesman for PharmaPrograms said.

It was entirely up to the doctor which therapy – if any – they deemed suitable, the spokesman said.

“Under this scheme pharmacists must dispense the product specified by the doctor, and may not substitute a different brand,” the spokesman said.

“Financial support to pharmacists for buying stock and educating patients is very common in the industry. This program is no different to other pharmaceutical programs,” the spokesman said.

Vapes were made prescription only in October last year.

The former president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Omar Khorshid and its former vice president Dr Chris Moy slammed the program.

“We condemn it deeply,” Dr Khorshid said.

A spokesperson for the Pharmacy Guild of Australia said: “The Guild is unaware of the details of the program”.

“The pharmacist’s role is to dispense the medication as prescribed. The pharmacist does not have a role in making specific recommendations to doctors in relation to prescribing of nicotine products,” the spokesman said.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners President Adj. Professor Karen Price said that the scheme was an “unholy alliance between Big Tobacco and the pharmacy sector” and had the potential to ruin community trust in their local pharmacy.

“I urge all pharmacists to resist the lure of Big Tobacco cash and not take part in this diabolic scheme,” she said.

“Tobacco companies are nothing short of inventive when it comes to attracting new nicotine users.”

Adjunct Professor Price said the scheme spoke to a larger problem facing the pharmacy sector.

“This isn’t just about vaping, this type of scheme speaks to pharmacy financial interests coming first ahead of patient safety and wellbeing,” she said.

“There are some within the pharmacy profession who are keen to explore any avenue for improving their bottom line, whether it is prescribing antibiotics for urinary tract infections or diagnosing and prescribing drugs for a range of serious health conditions without any consultations with a GP,” she said.

A spokesperson for Philip Morris Limited said “we openly share technical product information to assist prescribers and dispensers in their interactions with patients, be it in the GP clinic or the pharmacy”.

Originally published as Tobacco giant Philip Morris pays pharmacists incentives to dispense their VEEV vapes product