NPA deal allows e-pharmacy sites
The National Pharmaceutical Association has signed an agreement which
will allow its members to establish internet pharmacy sites through its
Ask Your Pharmacist website (www.askyourpharmacist.co.uk)
(AYP).
The NPA has established a joint venture, Askyourpharmacist.co.uk Ltd,
with Gochemist.com, an e-commerce services company. NPA members will be
offered three services. The first, which is free of charge, is the current
service where the AYP site will on request list local pharmacies by postcode.
The second service, for £50 a month, will allow pharmacists to build their
own websites, or to link existing sites to the AYP site. The third service,
for £100 a month, will be a fully functional e-commerce site. This is
to include regularly updated price lists, displayed prices set to members’
own requirements, personalised point of sale and marketing materials,
and ongoing site maintenance.
Speaking at a press briefing on January 29, Mr John D’Arcy (director,
NPA) said that the NPA wanted to establish a clicks-and-mortar model of
internet pharmacy for its members, directing customers to existing local
pharmacies, rather than a centralised, warehouse model. This would preserve
the community pharmacy network and the face-to-face communication between
pharmacists and their customers.
The deal with Gochemist allowed independent community pharmacists to compete
on a level playing field with larger retail multiples.
Mr Neil Kennedy (partner, Gochemist) said that Gochemist did not sell
directly to consumers and held no stock. It was a business services supplier
in partnership with the NPA. The clicks-and-mortar model had proved successful
in the United States. One of the main criteria for the success of an internet
trading venture was that the customers had trust in it. This site would
build on the trust that people had in their local pharmacists.
Gochemist.com was established by two computer scientists, Mr Kurosh Tehranchian
and Mr Joseph Yekta. The company’s directors include Mr Kennedy, who previously
worked in advertising, and Mr Kirit Patel, chairman of the Day Lewis pharmacy
chain and an NPA board member.
Mr Kennedy said that Gochemist had spent around £2m on establishing its
internet technology. It had been tested through a south London pharmacy.
He said that the £100 monthly cost compared favourably to costs of £40,000
or more for establishing a stand-alone e-commerce site, on top of which
there would be costs for maintenance. Mr Patel had joined Gochemist after
trying to establish his own Day Lewis pharmacy site and deciding that
the ongoing costs involved were too great.
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Scotia placed in administration after EMEA rejects Foscan
Scotia Holdings Plc was placed in voluntary administration by its directors
on January 29. The move gives the company protection from its creditors
as it attempts to secure its future.
Trading of shares in Scotia was suspended at the company’s request by
the London Stock Exchange on January 24. It followed news that the European
Medicines Evaluation Agency had ruled against approving Foscan, Scotia’s
photodynamic light therapy product for head and neck cancers. The share
price was 18.5p on suspension.
In September last year the American Food and Drug Administration also
rejected Foscan, causing Scotia’s share value to fall by 60 per cent.
Scotia said that it would appeal against the EMEA’s decision. It had also
agreed to submit further data to the FDA, gathered from patients entered
into trials since the original new drug application was made.
Scotia’s main problem is financial. It has an outstanding £50m convertible
loan to repay by March next year, but its cash reserves could be emptied
by March this year.
Mr Andrew Wollaston (partner, Ernst & Young, and one of the joint administrators)
told The Journal on January 30 that the directors of Scotia had
petitioned the High Court in London and administrators had been appointed
by the court.
Following this, the company’s creditors were under a moratorium to suspend
any legal actions to recover money owed to them. This gave Scotia a breathing
space in which the administrators would attempt to sort out its affairs
and secure its future as a going concern.
Mr Wollaston said that it was too early to say what would happen to staff
at Scotia. At present they remained employed by the company. The administrators
would seek to see where the value lay in the business, in terms of what
people might pay for, and where staff stood in relation to that.
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News in brief
Onmedica buys Medidesk
Onmedica Group Plc has acquired Medidesk Ltd, a supplier of clinical
software and information services for general medical practitioners and
primary care groups, for £15m in shares, it was announced on January 25.
Onmedica has a 40 per cent stake in Pharmacy2u, an internet pharmacy.
Bayer invests in PPL
Bayer AG is to buy almost £10m worth of shares in PPL Therapeutics Ltd,
it was announced on January 25. Some of the money will go towards acquiring
a site near PPL’s headquarters at Roslin, Lothian, Scotland. PPL plans
to build a £42m manufacturing plant on the site to allow it to make commercial
quantities of recombinant alpha1-antitrypsin (rAAT). The plant should
be operational by 2004.
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