New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PHARMACY PRACTICE ACT 2006 - SECT 25

25 Restrictions on who may have a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business

(1) A person must not own or otherwise have a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business (including as a partner or member of a firm) unless as one of the following:

(a) a registered pharmacist,

(b) a partner in a pharmacists’ partnership,

(c) a pharmacists’ body corporate or a member of a pharmacists’ body corporate.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units.

(2) Subsection (1) does not prevent a person from having a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business in circumstances prescribed by the regulations.

(3) Subsection (1) does not prevent a person from having a security interest in respect of a pharmacy business.

(4) Subsection (1) does not prevent a person who:

(a) is the executor, administrator or trustee of the estate of a deceased person who carried on a pharmacy business on the day of his or her death, or

(b) is appointed or authorised under the laws relating to bankruptcy to administer the property of a person who carried on a pharmacy business and who has become bankrupt,

from having a pecuniary interest in that business during a period not exceeding 6 months or such further period as the Board may authorise in writing.

(5) If:

(a) a person’s registration as a pharmacist is cancelled or suspended, and

(b) the person owned or otherwise had a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business immediately before the cancellation or suspension took effect,

subsection (1) does not prevent the person from having a pecuniary interest in that business during a period not exceeding 6 months immediately following the day on which the cancellation or suspension took effect.

(6) A person who has a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business pursuant to subsection (5) must not, during the period during which the person so holds that interest, enter or be in any premises in which that business is carried on unless the person:

(a) has the consent of the Board to do so, and

(b) complies with any conditions imposed by the Board in giving its consent.

(7) The Board may at any time vary or revoke any such consent, or any condition imposed on any such consent.

(8) Despite subsections (4) and (5), a person may have a pecuniary interest in a pharmacy business pursuant to those subsections only if the business is in the charge of a registered pharmacist who personally supervises the carrying on of that business.

(9) A person who is granted supervised registration under section 13 is taken not to be a registered pharmacist for the purposes of subsection (1) during the period of that registration.

Note: Sections 26 and 27 provide for the exemption from section 25 (1) of friendly and other societies and certain bodies corporate, respectively, in the circumstances set out in those sections.