THE FUTURE of hundreds of small chemists was said to be under threat today as the government moved to scrap retail price maintenance on the sale of over-the-counter drugs like aspirin.

But while chemists may have welcomed the anomalous retention of RPM in their business, consumers do not benefit from such price-fixing.

Its existence, it is estimated, is costing them £180million a year and its removal would mean that the price of some drugs would halve in large stores and supermarkets with the effect of real competition.

And why not? That's what free enterprise is supposed to be all about.

And even if for the hitherto-protected pharmacies it becomes a case of the survival of the fittest, whether or not hundreds of rural chemists are forced to shut will not be down to scrapping of rpm, but whether their customers are content with their prices.

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