The owner of one of Australia's largest pharmaceutical groups believes the push to open up ownership of pharmacies to supermarket chains is dead in the water.
Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API), which owns the Priceline brand, believes the Abbott government is unlikely to act on recommendations from the recently released Harper review to change current ownership restrictions on pharmacies.
"I think that's already been put out," chief executive Stephen Roche said.
"It won't get any traction."
The government-commissioned review by economist Ian Harper argued that current rules, which mean pharmacies can only be owned by pharmacists and prevent new pharmacies from setting up near existing ones, hurt competition and were not necessary to ensure patients received good advice.
But it faced strong opposition from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, which argued the rules prevented the major supermarket chains from achieving the kind of market dominance they have in areas like grocery retailing.
API on Thursday announced a return to profitability following a string of major writedowns last year.
The company made a net profit of $21.3 million for the six months to February 28, compared to a loss of $115 million a year ago.
Underlying profit climbed 32 per cent to $16.2 million, while the Priceline brand lifted like-for-like sales by 3.9 per cent.
API is one of the country's largest pharmaceutical distributors but in recent years has focused its attention on its fast-growing Priceline brand, which has a focus on health and beauty products.
The company has opened 27 news stores since April 2014 to cross the 400 store mark and plans to open another 20 during the second half.
Mr Roche said company still had significant room to grow and said some modelling suggested its network could eventually expand to 1,100 stores.
API shares, which have more than doubled since the start of the year, were up one cent at $1.645.
