Here’s how one law from the ‘50s allows corporations to own (some) pharmacies in Ontario

In a new story from The Globe and Mail, the newspaper brought a law from 1954 back into the spotlight.Since 1954, only pharmacists can own a pharmacy in Ontario. However, any corporation that operated a pharmacy before May 14, 1954 were grandfathered in, leading to a grey market for these pre-1954 business charters, which enable anyone who owns one the legal authority to own one or more pharmacies. The few remaining charters from this time can cost millions. The Globe interviewed Saskatoon-based PharmaCorp Rx Inc. owner Al Simpson, who owns one such charter. According to The Globe, Simpson raised the money to launch PharmaCorp after meeting with the head of PharmaChoice. Knowing that some older pharmacy owners wanted to retire but didn’t have an exit strategy, Simpson stepped in and purchased a pre-1954 business charter for $2.1 million. The Ontario College of Pharmacists told the Globe that there are currently 46 active pre-1954 charter companies which own and operate 954 pharmacies in the province, or about 19%. A whopping 859 of these pharmacies are owned by just 11 companies. Meanwhile, there are a total of 5,019 community pharmacies in Ontario, and 2,712 of them are operated under franchises or banners. The College also told the Globe that there are 85 inactive charter corporations that do not currently own a pharmacy. Charters used to cost around $500,000 or $600,000, but when cannabis was legalized, retailers that wanted to open dispensaries started buying charters, driving the price up, lawyer Peter Saad explained to the Globe. The price hasn’t dropped, and now hangs around $2 million or more. Pre-1954 charter corporations might also get less oversight than pharmacist-owned businesses because of a gap in regulations—colleges are only set up to oversee health professionals and can sanction them. Business owners who aren’t healthcare professionals don’t face that same scrutiny. Other provinces also restrict who can own a pharmacy: B.C. has a law that stipulates that a corporation can only own a pharmacy if a majority of its directors are pharmacists and in Quebec, only pharmacists can have an ownership stake in a pharmacy.

Here’s how one law from the ‘50s allows corporations to own (some) pharmacies in Ontario

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