• Pharmacist stars in Boots online venture
• AAH plans £1m call centre
• PPRS does not restrict imports
• Unichem moves into Norway
• January retail sales figures unchanged
• ABPI complaints fell in 2000

News in brief

Pharmacist stars in Boots online venture

Sarah Pattison is set to become the first pharmacist television star, with the launch last week of the Wellbeing network, a joint venture between Boots the Chemists Ltd and Granada television. Wellbeing is a TV channel broadcasting for 12 hours a day, 9am to 9pm, on digital television, and an associated website (www.wellbeing.com).

Miss Pattison, who works for Boots in London, will be one of the channel's team of experts, which includes paediatricians and general practitioners. The website was launched with a team of three pharmacists answering customers' queries online in the “Ask a pharmacist” section.

The venture will be financed by a combination of advertising, sponsorship and sales through the online store where 10,000 Boots products will be available.

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AAH plans £1m call centre

AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd is to spend £1m establishing a call centre to handle inquiries from its community pharmacy customers. Starting this month, calls to AAH's depot at Ruislip, west London, will be directed to a call centre at Warrington, Cheshire, on a local call rate number (0845 607 8899). Calls from Southampton will be rerouted in April.

Ms Trudie Newman (call centre project manager, AAH) said that around 80 per cent of the calls to AAH's depots were general customer account inquiries or orders. These calls would be directed to the call centre. The remaining 20 per cent or more complex queries would be dealt with on a one-to-one basis at branch level. Branches would continue to deal with hospital calls separately.

Once the pilot project has been completed, AAH intends to have around 100 staff at three sites in Warrington, Leeds and Glasgow. The sites will be linked to operate as one single call centre. AAH says that the new service will offer customers reduced call charges and a continually improving service level.

Vantage trust AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd has established a community trust fund for members of its Vantage symbol group. Vantage pharmacies will be able to apply to the trust for a grant of up to £500 to support local community schemes in their areas. All applications will be judged on merit. Applications outlining how the money will be used can be made to

AAH Pharmaceuticals Vantage Community Trust
Harrison Cowley
Victoria Buildings
1 Princess Street
Albert Square
Manchester M2 4DF

e-mail mikeb@harrisoncowley.com

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PPRS does not restrict imports

The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme does not restrict the use of parallel imported products, the High Court ruled on March 14.

The ruling was made as the British Association of European Pharmaceutical Distributors (BAEPD, formerly known as the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers) had an application for a judicial review of the PPRS dismissed.

The BAEPD claimed that provisions in the scheme, which permitted pharmaceutical companies flexibility in making price cuts across their product ranges, allowed companies to target products subject to parallel importing. Companies were required to make a one-off 4.5 per cent price cut when the latest PPRS was introduced in October, 1999. The BAEPD also claimed that one of the aims of the PPRS was to reduce or eliminate the viability of parallel imports.

The court ruled that the provisions were not anti-competitive and were not specifically intended to target imports.

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Unichem moves into Norway

Alliance Unichem Plc has secured the rights to buy 53 Norwegian pharmacies following the relaxation of ownership rules there this month. It also has licences for seven new pharmacies. The company operates 16 pharmacies in the Netherlands, eight in Italy and 30 in Switzerland as well as 712 Moss pharmacies in the United Kingdom.

On March 21, Alliance Unichem reported pre-tax profits of £133.7m for the year to December 31, 2000, up 9 per cent, on a turnover of £6.2bn, up 2 per cent.

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January retail sales figures unchanged

The value of retail sales for January, 2001, under the classification of pharmaceutical sales, was unchanged at 112.

The classification of the retail sale of pharmaceutical, medical, cosmetic and toilet goods excludes National Health Service receipts. The figures are based on returns made by a number of large retail pharmacy chains, but exclude Boots the Chemists Ltd, which is classified under non-specialised retail stores.

The figures are compiled by the Office for National Statistics.

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ABPI complaints fell in 2000

The number of complaints made about the promotion of prescription medicines fell slightly last year, according to the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority.

There were 121 complaints under the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s code of practice last year, leading to 135 individual cases for investigation. In 1999, there were 127 complaints leading to 128 cases. The number of complaints from health care professionals (57) exceeded those from pharmaceutical companies (51).

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News in brief

PPL seeks £45m

PPL Therapeutics Plc is planning to raise £45m through a share offer. The money will be used to develop the company's protein, antibody and peptide products, recruit additional production and quality control staff and purchase a second farm in New Zealand to expand its sheep flock. PPL made a loss of £11.2m in the year to December 31, 2000, 22 per cent less than in 1999. Research and development costs were down from £13.5m to £10m.

Alliance Unichem in France

Alliance Unichem Plc has acquired 95 per cent of Atrapharm International, a French pre-wholesaling company based at Saran, Loiret. The acquisition has been made through Alloga, Alliance Unichem's pre-wholesaling joint venture with the Galenica Group of Switzerland.

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