Vitality Law Australia

Vitality Law Australia Lawyers for businesses that care. Pharmacy & Healthcare. Conveyancing. Leasing.

Most pharmacy owners start getting ready to sell about six months too late.Not because they are disorganised. Because th...
01/09/2026

Most pharmacy owners start getting ready to sell about six months too late.

Not because they are disorganised. Because the things a buyer scrutinises are not the things you think about while you are running the shop.

Here is what we would want tidied up well before you go to market:

→ The lease. Term remaining, options, assignment provisions. A short lease with no options narrows your buyer pool before you have spoken to a single person.

→ Employment records. Contracts, classifications and accrued entitlements. Entitlements usually move with the business, so a buyer will price them in whether you have counted them or not.

→ Approvals. Your State or Territory approval, and your PBS approval if you hold one. Worth knowing now: the buyer applies for a new PBS approval, known as a change of ownership. It does not transfer with the keys, and it runs on its own timeline.

→ Your documents agreeing with each other. This sounds minor and it is not. Inconsistencies across your documents, especially the address of the pharmacy, cause real headaches and can hold up a settlement.

→ Script and dispensing data, clean and ready. Serious buyers ask early, and a slow answer reads as a red flag.

→ Supplier, wholesaler and banner agreements. Know what a buyer inherits and how long they are locked in.

The aim is not a perfect business. It is a business with no surprises in it.

Thinking about selling in the next year or two? Get in touch and we will help you work out what to sort out first: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

A good lawyer is not automatically the right lawyer for your pharmacy.Pharmacy is one of the most regulated industries i...
30/08/2026

A good lawyer is not automatically the right lawyer for your pharmacy.

Pharmacy is one of the most regulated industries in Australia. If your lawyer has not worked in it before, you spend your deal explaining your own industry to them, on your time and at your cost.

What changes when they already know it:

- They understand that a straightforward purchase of an existing pharmacy can quickly become complex with all the moving parts
- They read your lease with the pharmacy in mind, not just the rent and the term
- They pick up structure and ownership issues early, rather than when your financier raises them
- They speak the same language as your broker, your accountant and the wholesaler

The cost of the alternative is rarely a dramatic mistake. It is delay and increased expenses. Questions that take a week to come back. Advice that arrives hedged because nobody is certain how the rules apply here. Deals run to timetables, and time spent educating your adviser comes out of the time you had to negotiate.

Our team works exclusively with pharmacy and healthcare businesses. You should not have to teach your lawyer your own industry.

Buying or selling this year? Don't wait, get in touch with our pharmacy legal experts now: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

Three compliance gaps we see in pharmacies over and over.1. Employment contracts and classifications that have not been ...
26/08/2026

Three compliance gaps we see in pharmacies over and over.

1. Employment contracts and classifications that have not been reviewed in years. The award moves. Templates do not.

2. Workplace policies that exist on paper but were never rolled out or trained on.

3. Lease and ownership paperwork that no longer matches how the business actually runs.

None of these are dramatic. All of them are straightforward to fix on a quiet Tuesday, and expensive to fix during a dispute or a sale.

Not sure where your paperwork stands? Get in touch with our pharmacy lawyers now: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

Meet Sarah Stoddart, founder of Vitality Law Australia.She started the firm in November 2020, for one fairly specific re...
26/08/2026

Meet Sarah Stoddart, founder of Vitality Law Australia.

She started the firm in November 2020, for one fairly specific reason:
Pharmacy owners kept having to teach their lawyers their own industry.

Before Sarah started the firm, she had worked at an international firm, in house at an ASX listed company, and in boutique practice. What she kept seeing was smart, commercially minded owners in one of the most regulated industries in the country, sitting across from advisers who were learning the basics on their time.

So she built the practice narrower on purpose. At Vitality Law Australia, we work exclusively with pharmacy and healthcare businesses. Buying, selling, staying compliant, growing, eventually exiting. That is the whole practice.

The other half of it is education, which is why Sarah hosts the Calm the Pharm podcast, speaks at conferences and writes for the industry press. The more owners understand the regulatory side, the fewer expensive surprises there are.

If you own a pharmacy and you have been putting off a legal question because it feels like too much to explain, that is exactly the conversation Sarah would like to have: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

24/08/2026

Buying a pharmacy is not like buying any other business.

It is one of the most regulated purchases you can make in this country, and three things shape it before you get anywhere near price.

- Ownership. Pharmacies generally need to be owned by pharmacists, with limited exceptions, and there are limits on how many you can own in each State or Territory
- PBS approval. It does not come with the keys. The buyer usually applies for a new PBS approval, known as a change of ownership, before PBS medicines can be supplied from that site
- Due diligence. The lease, staff entitlements, script volumes, patient records, and what your competitors might be planning nearby

We have seen deals stall at settlement because nobody built the approval timing in.

Get the contract right before you shake hands on a price. Get in touch with our pharmacy law experts now: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

A signed employment contract is not the same as a compliant one.The Pharmacy Industry Award sets the floor for most phar...
21/08/2026

A signed employment contract is not the same as a compliant one.

The Pharmacy Industry Award sets the floor for most pharmacy roles, and it moves even when your template does not.

What we see most often:

- Classifications that do not match the actual role, so the pay rate is wrong
- Rates that have not kept pace with award increases
- Casual and part time terms that ignore guaranteed hours and casual conversion
- Annualised salary clauses that do not cover the penalties and allowances required
- Contracts pointing to policies that were never written
- Contractor arrangements that look like employment in practice

It rarely surfaces while things are going well. It surfaces in a dispute, an underpayment claim, or mid sale when a buyer asks about entitlements.

Not sure your contracts still stack up? Get in touch with our pharmacy lawyers to get started: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

By the time most owners call a lawyer about selling, they have already signed two or three things. A broker agreement. A...
19/08/2026

By the time most owners call a lawyer about selling, they have already signed two or three things. A broker agreement. A confidentiality deed. Sometimes a heads of agreement that has quietly settled the terms of the entire deal.

Worth doing before you get there:

→ Know exactly what you are selling. The PBS approval, goodwill, plant and equipment, stock, and the lease are all separate pieces, and buyers treat them differently
→ Get your paperwork in order before the buyer looks at it. Employment records, supplier agreements, the lease and any variations. Due diligence is far smoother when nothing surprises anyone
→ Sort out confidentiality before you tell staff, suppliers or anyone at the wholesaler
→ Read the broker agreement properly, particularly the commission terms and how long you are tied in
→ Understand the restraint you will be asked to sign. Distance, time, and what it stops you doing next
→ Talk to your accountant about structure and tax early, not after the price is agreed

A heads of agreement feels harmless because it is short and often labelled non binding. Parts of it usually are binding, and even the parts that are not set the expectations everything else gets negotiated against.

Thinking about selling in the next twelve months? Get in touch with our pharmacy legal experts now: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

How many pharmacy matters have you worked on in the last twelve months?Not how long they have been practising. Not wheth...
17/08/2026

How many pharmacy matters have you worked on in the last twelve months?

Not how long they have been practising. Not whether they do commercial work generally. How many pharmacies, and how recently.

You are listening for whether the answer comes easily. Someone who works in this industry will tell you what they have seen lately and where deals tend to get stuck. Someone who does not will steer the conversation back to general commercial experience and reassurance.

Two follow ups worth asking:

- What usually goes wrong in a pharmacy sale, and how do you get ahead of it?
- Who else do you work with on these, brokers, financiers, accountants?

The second matters more than people expect. Pharmacy transactions involve a small group of people who deal with each other constantly, and a lawyer already inside that network moves faster than one starting from scratch.

None of this is about catching anyone out. Plenty of excellent lawyers will simply say pharmacy is not their area, which is a useful answer too. It is about whether you spend your matter getting advice or giving a lesson.

About to appoint someone? Get in touch with our pharmacy lawyers first, and ask us this question before making your decision: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

Sarah argues that the time you spend on LinkedIn is not worth it. We are aware of where you are reading this.In this epi...
14/08/2026

Sarah argues that the time you spend on LinkedIn is not worth it. We are aware of where you are reading this.

In this episode of Calm the Pharm, she unpacks the Great Debate at Leanne Hughes' Con Con, where she took the negative side.

The case she made:

- Being seen by the algorithm has replaced being known by people
- The hours come out of your health and your real relationships
- Long-running Harvard research keeps finding the same thing, that the quality of your relationships beats status and achievements

Her line through the whole debate was, let us take this offline.

If you own a pharmacy, you are already short on time. The question is not whether to be online. It is whether that hour would have done more as a conversation.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts now!

12/08/2026

Settlement is done. The keys are yours. So you can open and start dispensing PBS medicines, right?

Not quite.

To supply PBS medicines from a pharmacy, you need your own approval to supply from that site. For a straightforward purchase at the same location, an application goes to the Department of Health. It can take up to 30 days to process, and the certificate often lands after settlement rather than before.

Plan your opening day around a certificate you are not yet holding and you come unstuck.

The fix is straightforward:

- Lodge the application early, well ahead of settlement
- Ask your suppliers whether they will accept the administration number notice as approval, or whether they really need the certificate

Owning a pharmacy is a brilliant move. Just get the approval right.

Buying a pharmacy at the moment? Our team is ready when you are: https://vitalitylawaustralia.com/contact/

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