Canberra pharmacists say their customers are being forced to wait more than four days for some medicines because of a ''direct distribution'' system adopted by drug company Pfizer earlier this year.
Drug wholesalers and some pharmacists want the Federal Government to intervene to ensure patients are able to access Pfizer medicines prescribed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme within 24 hours of orders being placed.
But Pfizer denied it was unable to deliver medicines on time and said it met 99per cent of orders by the next business day.
Ninety per cent of pharmacists who responded to a survey commissioned by the wholesale drug industry body, the Pharmaceutical Services Association, said they had experienced a deterioration in the timely and reliable supply of medicines since Pfizer began distributing its own products to pharmacies in February.
Medicines from other companies are distributed by wholesalers who receive government subsidies and are required to supply pharmacies within 24 hours of an order being placed.
Canberra pharmacist Chris Lawler yesterday said refrigerated Pfizer medicines ordered after 3pm on a Thursday could now take until the following Tuesday to arrive.
Mr Lawler, who works in several city pharmacies, said on several occasions the delays had forced him to drive to pharmacies in other parts of Canberra to collect medicines for vulnerable customers.
''You tell the patient you can't use your injection or you can't take your injection until sometime next Tuesday when I get it,'' he said.
''In the past I've had to take a customer's script, ask them for permission to get it dispensed at another pharmacy ... I'll drive to another pharmacy in another suburb to get it filled for them.''
Mr Lawler said pharmacies routinely borrowed medicines from each other when supplies were running low but this was becoming increasingly difficult when they all had low stocks of Pfizer products.
He was among a group of pharmacists and representatives of the Pharmaceutical Services Association who met staff of the Prime Minister's Office and Leader of the Opposition's Office to discuss the issue yesterday.
Pharmaceutical Services Association president Patrick Davies said Pfizer should be required to make medicines available through wholesalers in addition to its own distribution system to ensure that supplies arrived on time.
Pfizer Australia chairman and managing director John Latham said the company had ironed out early teething problems with its drug distribution system and delivered 99per cent of prescriptions by the next business day.
In addition, 62 ''critical'' drugs were delivered within 24 hours, including on weekends.
Mr Latham said Pfizer had received minimal official complaints from pharmacies about deliveries.
''I think there were 63 in the first month, 43 in the second month and they're down now to averaging about 11 in the last three months. Obviously any complaint is one too many and we follow them all up,'' he said.
Pharmacy Guild national president Kos Sclavos said Pfizer's direct distribution system had caused angst among many pharmacists and the guild was drawing the company's attention to problems as they were reported by members.
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