To give you the full picture: State laws require a pharmacy...

To give you the full picture:

State laws require a pharmacy premises to be registered with state authorities and a pharmacist registered with AHPRA must be present at all times. There are a number of strict requirements for registration of premises with regards to being separated from other business premises, facilities, equipment and reference books (hard copy or online) etc., for the practice of pharmacy. So it is illegal to have any signage purporting that the business is operating a pharmacy without being registered.

Maybe worth giving you some more background about the operation of a pharmacy in Australia.

Separate from the above requirements, there is the matter of federal government approval to dispense PBS medicines. This is where ownership, location rules, public need and other matters come into it. A pharmacist could theoretically open a pharmacy without PBS approval however it would generally not be economically viable under the Australian system.

On top of this, State regulations cover the limitation of the number of pharmacies that a single pharmacist can have a pecuniary interest in and some of the exemptions (e.g. grandfathered friendly societies). The emergence of larger partnerships and corporate pharmacy chains is facilitated by adding pharmacist partners or shareholders to the business structure. It is perhaps a pity that the rules don't specify that to be a partner or shareholder a pharmacist must have a significant percentage (e.g. not less than 25%) of true ownership and at least 50%before their entity can expand by purchasing other pharmacies. This would limit the ability of Wealthy Corporate Pharmacy entities to expand virtually unhindered which is contrary to the original intentions of the rules. The limitations of ownership were originally in place to ensure a pharmacist would be able to maintain close oversight of the quality of the practice of pharmacy. What has now happened has certainly diluted the arguments for non pharmacist corporate ownership.