MEDICINE FOR THE SICK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15685, 12 August 1914, Page 7

MEDICINE FOR THE SICK

PRICE OF DRUGS RAISED.

WHOLESALE HOUSES' ACTION.

COMMENTS OP THE CHEMISTS.

A gkxkrai, increase, in the prices of drugs, proprietary medicines, and chemists' sundries lias been made by three of the wholesale firms carrying on business in Auckland. The fourth house has not made any alteration in its price-lists. According to tho opinions expressed yesterday by several of the leading chemists, tho increases cannot bo justified upon any legitimate grounds. The goods which are now being sold at advanced prices are being taken from stocks which were held when the war crisis occurred, so that it cannot bo suggested, they said, that extra war risk insurance or greater cost of freights has to bo paid upon them. The general opinion expressed was that tho probability of interference with trade is not sufficient to warrant many of the increases that have been made, for tho increases, it is said, have been made indiscriminately, and without regard to tho nationality of tho manufacturers

Many drugs which are largely used in medical prescriptions aiv. now being sold from tho warehouses at higher prices, and it is not at all unlikely that some of the smaller chemists who do not import their stocks themselves will find it necessary to raise the price of the bottle of medicine.