A battle between two pharmacies

The owner of a Valletta pharmacy has filed a judicial letter against the health authorities accusing them of failing to take action against another pharmacy, which they say has been operating nearby for more than a year without a valid licence.

We are suffering damages as a result of the authorities’ inaction

Collis Williams Limited claimed that Chemimart Limited, which moved to Republic Street in 2010 when City Gate was being demolished, was only given a temporary licence to operate there.

The temporary licence expired at the end of that year, it said.

Eighteen months have passed since the move and the pharmacy remained in Republic Street in breach of the law, it added.

The letter was filed against the Medicines Authority, the Licensing Authority’s director general, the minister responsible for fair competition and the Health Minister.

Collis Williams, located in Republic Street, referred to a judgement delivered by the Court of Appeal in May 2010. The Superintendent of Public Health had been ordered to issue a temporary licence authorising the owner of Chemimart pharmacy to operate from Republic Street, a few doors away from Collis Williams. The permit was to be valid until December 2010.

In the judicial letter, Collis Williams also quoted a recent parliamentary question made by Labour MP Joe Debono Grech. In the reply, given in March, Health Minister Joe Cassar said the Licensing Authority never issued a licence for Chemimart to operate from Republic Street.

Collis Williams claimed that it was suffering damages as a result of the authorities’ inaction to enforce the law and the court’s judgment.

Legal battles over the location of Chemimart began in March 2010.

Owners of shops at the City Gate Arcades and in the old opera house ruins had to close their outlets that month in preparation for demolition works in connection with the Valletta entrance regeneration project.

The owner of Chemimart, Reginald Fava, refused to close his pharmacy and, although the government offered him an alternative location in the shopping mall on the right-hand side of Freedom Square, he could not move in immediately because structural works had to be made first.

He filed an urgent lawsuit against the Medicines Authority after it refused to transfer the licence of his pharmacy in Freedom Square to Republic Street.

Other pharmacy owners complained about such a transfer, claiming that Mr Fava’s pharmacy would be closer than 300 metres from their pharmacies, a distance set by law.

The issue went to court and the authorities were ordered to issue a temporary licence allowing Mr Fava to operate his pharmacy from Republic Street until December 2010. This was confirmed on appeal.