Editorial

From the desk of the editor

Welcome to the May 2012 homepage edition of i2P-Information to Pharmacists. Rollo Manning has been having some time out having staples removed from the site of his open heart surgery.He is now at home recuperating in Darwin, having arrived home last Friday, beating a cold and hasty retreat from Canberra.We all wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully, he will be fit enough to contribute by next month.
This month, Pharmedia discusses the toll that is taken when someone complains about you to an authority without good cause. Well, the good news is that you can now take action to protect yourself if such a complaint is made, and that may even include action for defamation. Read about a recent case involving two doctors, with Mark Coleman drawing on personal experience to illustrate.

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Sigma still in turmoil

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Editing and Researching news and stories about global and local Pharmacy Issues

Sigma continues to struggle to maintain its viability and obviously needs a “white knight” to come to its rescue with an offer of a friendly merger or takeover.
It is believed that some interest has developed for a transaction of this type, but may be less likely with most of the principal architects of the company's decline still in place
With the recent resignation of Mr Elmo de Alwis, attention is now turning to John Stocker (chairman) and Mark Smith (chief financial officer).

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Pressure continues as the company negotiates with its major clients in an endeavour to retain their business.

Given that these clients were already on a very “sweet” deal, it does not appear likely that Sigma will be able to retain their business by offering more inducements, also given that Sigma's bankers may have to give their approval to any formal arrangement.

Not openly stated as yet, but many of Sigma's smaller customers are yet to resolve their own supplier decision, and will most probably move to another supplier if too generous a set of terms is granted to the major clients. Many community pharmacists believe that the business practices of these pharmacy groups is not sound, and that they too could be facing a melt down sometime into the future.

All this conjecture continues to destabilise Sigma, and operational management is in turmoil.

Elmo de Alwis leaves Sigma after 33 years of service after accepting full responsibility for the company's poor performance. It is believed that pressure from the Sigma board finally cemented his decision to leave. He held out for 16 days after release of the company's formal accounts.

Mr de Alwis said his resignation was more about responsibility rather than blaming Sigma’s financial problems on industry funding reforms or the Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme.

Despite the miserable financial results, many pharmacists continue to have a high regard for Mr de Alwis and are uneasy about his decision to leave. Preparations to recruit a new CEO have begun.

Dr Stocker, who is also a director of Telstra, Nufarm and CSIRO, was appointed to the Sigma board in 1998 and graduated to chairman one year later.

He was heavily involved when Sigma forged its disastrous $2.2 billion merger with Arrow Pharmaceuticals in 2005.

Mr Smith joined Sigma in January 2008 as its chief financial officer and was previously an executive director within ANZ's institutional banking division.

In addition to his group financial commitments, he was responsible for Sigma's generics business, the division that has suffered the most over the past 12 months and the primary cause of goodwill write-downs in the recent financial accounts.

The fallout from Sigma's shock goodwill writedown this month has kept the share price at all-time lows and lenders are maintaining a tight rein on the company's day-to-day operations.

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