Intercorp Group recently bought 100% of the stocks corresponding to the company Quicorp S.A., which could create a potential risk for the users in the acquisition of medicine and health products, according to the Health Minister Abel Salinas Rivas.
“Regarding the merge of several pharmacies, it could mean a potential risk for the user in the acquisition of their medication”, Salinas Rivas pointed out. He also thinks that one of those risks could have to do with overpriced drugs or scarcity.
Quicorp owned the pharmaceutical chains Mifarma, BTL, and Fasa. After the merger, Intercorp will own 95% of the market share of these pharmacies in Peru.
Salinas Rivas’s worries come from the need to avoid market dominance that could harm the final users. This can happen when mergers take place and competition is eliminated.
“There has to be a norm that can regulate this, and in fact next week’s discussion will be about that, on how pharmacy mergers can affect users and how can it be guaranteed that the market is safe enough and beneficial for the citizens, without it resulting in overpriced products or scarcity”, the Health Minister said, according to El Peruano.
This journal also informed that tomorrow the Commission for the Defense of Consumers and Regulatory Bodies of the Congress will hold an extraordinary session to analyze the purchase of 100% of Quicorp stocks.
There is currently a project for an antitrust bill so that mergers between companies notify if they concentrate 51% of the market so that it should be discussed with priority, said Popular Action congressman Yonhy Lescano.
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