This report resulted from a request to the Centro de Estudos de Gestão e Economia Aplicada (CEGEA) by the AdC. The report assessed the costs and benefits associated with the regulatory framework of the pharmacies sector and put forward a set of recommendations.
The report highlighted that the number and the geographical distribution of pharmacies were strongly limited by legal obligations on the opening of new pharmacies, as public bodies determined whether and where new pharmacies could open. In addition, the AdC found that the current regulatory framework did not allow pharmacies to compete on price, on variety or on location.
For this reason, the report concluded that pharmacies benefited from significant supra-competitive profits.
The report also compared the Portuguese legislation on pharmacies with that of other European countries, and found that these were frequently less restrictive of competition and that the adoption of some of these norms would reduce consumer expenses and increase the territorial coverage of pharmacies.