Fifteen years ago, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia agreed to a deal where pharmacists’ computers would promote Blackmores supplements when patients filled scripts for certain drugs — the so-called ‘Coke and fries’ stoush.

In theory it was a commercial goldmine, given the new line of supplements were designed to be paired with the millions of prescriptions being written each year for statins, antibiotics, anti-hypertensives and proton pump inhibitors.

The AMA was outraged, perhaps unsurprisingly. But so was the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, which represents pharmacists rather than owners.

The deal was nixed because of the “ill-informed and inflammatory” outrage — the guild’s phrasing.