Pfizer to introduce regular Saturday deliveries

 Tuesday 24 January

Community pharmacies around Australia will be able to receive Saturday deliveries of their Pfizer medicines from 5 March 2012, in the latest improvement to Pfizer Direct.

Under the new arrangement pharmacists can choose to receive a Saturday delivery for orders placed manually before 2pm on Fridays. Saturday deliveries will incur a $20 delivery fee.  

“Pharmacists have told us they want the option to receive orders on Saturdays and we are pleased to be able to introduce this,” Pfizer Australia Managing Director John Latham said.

“This change means that pharmacists who place their manual orders before 2pm on Fridays will be able to choose to have these delivered on Saturdays. For those pharmacists who are open on Saturdays, this will give them additional flexibility in meeting their patients’ needs.”

The introduction of Saturday deliveries for metropolitan, regional and rural pharmacies coincides with the first anniversary of the Pfizer Direct distribution model.

“Since we began delivering direct to pharmacies 12 months ago, we have delivered more than 428,000 orders, and more than 99% of these have been delivered on time,” Mr Latham said.

“Direct distribution to pharmacy is now a regular part of the way we serve community pharmacy in Australia. For the past year we have been working very closely with pharmacies in ensuring the reliable and timely supply of our medicines to Australian patients.”

In December Pfizer increased the number of free Monday-to-Friday deliveries from five to eight per month, and also extended ordering cut-off times. With the introduction of Saturday deliveries pharmacies will continue to receive their eight free Monday-to-Friday deliveries per month. Orders placed manually before the Friday ordering cut-off time of 2pm will be eligible for next day (Saturday) delivery, with a $20 delivery fee, recognising the additional delivery costs involved. Saturday deliveries will be in addition to the normal Monday-to-Friday deliveries.

“Pharmacists will of course be able to continue to place urgent orders, or order from the critical products list, in response to urgent or unexpected patient needs,” Mr Latham said. “Urgent orders, and orders for medicines from the critical products list, will continue to be delivered on the same day wherever possible, free of charge, including at weekends and on public holidays.”