Tobacco giant Philip Morris fumes over Chemist Warehouse chief’s vape deal flak

Tobacco giant Philip Morris has lifted the lid on its usually highly secretive attempts to strike commercial deals with pharmacists to stock its vape products.

Chemist Warehouse chairman Jack Gance. Picture: Aaron Francis

Tobacco giant Philip Morris Limited has lifted the lid on its usually highly secretive attempts to strike commercial deals with pharmacists to stock its vape products, in response to being described as “our enemy” by the chairman of Chemist Warehouse.

Philip Morris has been under fire for offering cash incentives to pharmacists to stock its brand of vapes, known as VEEV, refer ­patients to doctors who would prescribe its vapes, and dispense its vapes under a scheme that is now under a cloud.

Through the pharmacy IT solutions group PharmaPrograms, Philip Morris Limited had issued invitations to pharmacists to sign up to its VEEV Pharmacy Program. Under the program, Philip Morris Limited was to pay pharmacists $275 when they ordered the VEEV vaping product. In addition, it was to pay pharmacists a $5 fee when they referred 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 “dispensing support payment” of $5 every time they dispensed a new script of the product.

PharmaPrograms has now announced that the launch of the program has been postponed “while a review of all components of it is being completed”.

Pharmacists stock vapes under strict Therapeutic Goods Association rules after Australia legis­lated a scheme in which vape products must be prescribed by a doctor.

After Philip Morris Limited’s pharmacy scheme was revealed this week by News Corp health reporter Sue Dunlevy, Chemist Warehouse chairman Jack Gance revealed he had rejected a deal offered by Philip Morris Limited to exclusively stock its vapes.

Mr Gance alleged Philip Morris Limited was attempting to bribe pharmacists and that its behaviour was “unethical if not illegal”.

“Rebates, training, advertising, promotion, anything I wanted, I mean, they were desperate – ­anything I wanted to get our business,” Mr Gance told The Daily Telegraph.

“(But) why would I support Big Tobacco? I mean they’re our enemy,” he said.

In response, Philip Morris Limited issued a rare public statement accusing Mr Gance of “flagrantly breaching his confidentiality obligations” and revealing that it had met with him at his private home as well as ­corporate offices on numerous ­occasions as talks took place.

“Whilst noting the specifics of the discussions are confidential, those discussions advanced to a mature phase, with Chemist Warehouse keen to showcase their capabilities and expertise as it relates to distributing our nicotine vaping product.

“We find it very interesting that Mr Gance now refers to the ­tobacco industry as ‘our enemy’ when following numerous meetings and months of discussions where he requested exclusive rights to our nicotine vaping product as well as our heated tobacco products.”

After the cash incentives to chemists were revealed, the Royal Australian College of GPs labelled deals between pharmacists and ­tobacco companies as “an unholy alliance”.

“This is nothing short of appalling, … what we essentially have here is a health organisation working hand in hand with a tobacco giant responsible for the deaths of millions and millions of people to incentivise pharmacists into pushing a harmful vaping product,” said RACGP president Karen Price.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia also condemned the scheme.

Since the introduction of prescription vaping legislation in Australia last year, vapes from mult­iple manufacturers including tobacco giants are available in more than 2000 pharmacies across the country.