A wholesale business set up to give community pharmacists greater purchasing power has reported a loss of more than €300,000.

The business, Aegis Pharmaceuticals Ltd, lost €310,366 for year to end-March 31st, according to accounts lodged with the Companies Office. This compared with a loss of €191,405 for the year to March 31st, 2001.

The company is wholly owned by the Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) and was set up as a reaction to the influx of multi-national chemist chains to the pharmacy sector.

The IPU is the representative organisation for community pharmacists, most of them sole traders. The organisation is currently in dispute with the Government over the extent of deregulation in the pharmacy market.

Aegis is a not-for-profit operation but its secretary, Mr Philip Cozens, said yesterday he hoped it would break even in the next year or two. He said the losses were being pared back and trading in 2002/2003 was particularly strong.

About 250 community pharmacists have paid a membership fee of €1,460 to the company. Once this is paid, they order their toiletries, cosmetics and medicines from Aegis, which charges a service fee that Mr Cozens claimed was highly competitive compared with anything charged by conventional wholesalers.

He said the whole operation - which is based at the IPU's offices in Rathfarnham, Dublin - was run by four people.

He added that the company was hoping to recruit more members but was having difficulties coping with current demand from the sector.

Mr Cozens said the IPU was aware of the losses and was comfortable with them. "The picture has changed considerably since the accounts were filed," he said.

He added that as more pharmacists joined Aegis, the level of losses would be significantly reduced. "The more people that come on board, the better the combined purchasing power."

He said Aegis always tried to buy from Irish suppliers.

Meanwhile, the IPU has called on the Government to follow the example of the UK government and reject proposals to deregulate the pharmacy sector.

The IPU is awaiting an important report on deregulation from the Minister for Health, Mr Martin. It is concerned the Minister will press ahead with deregulation without consulting the IPU again.

The IPU said the Government should halt its plans to "leave the Irish pharmacy market the most open and vulnerable in all of the EU".

According to Mr Richard Collis, president of the IPU, the UK government had recognised that "economic theory alone should not govern the development of the health sector".