Business News summary

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to review its controversial discount scheme as a result of the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham...[more]

Sterile maggots for cleaning wounds and Viagra (sildenafil) have won innovation awards in the 2001 Queen's Awards for Enterprise...[more]

Sales of over-the-counter medicines and food supplements in the United Kingdom show an overall growth in value of just 2.5 per cent for 2000 over 1999...[more]

News in brief
BASF AG's pharmaceutical division reported sales of E2.5bn (£1.6bn) for the year to December 31 2000, making up 7 per cent of BASF's total sales of E36bn. The pharmaceuticals division has been sold to Abbott Laboratories for $6.9bn (£4.8bn).

National Co-operative Chemists Ltd is planning further expansion over the next few months, according Mr Roy Carrington (chief executive, NCC). Mr Carrington said that the company had spent the past year consolidating and introducing a new brand image to its branches. NCC has started its expansion by acquiring Ladds Pharmacy, City Road, Cardiff, and Lakeside Chemist, Station Road, Radyr. NCC now has 279, more than 20 of which are in Wales.

The British Association of European Pharmaceutical Distributors and Dowelhurst Ltd are to take their claim that the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme is anticompetitive to the Court of Appeal. The High Court dismissed the claim on March 14 (PJ, March 24, p384).

Pharmacy valuation and sales agency Orridge Ltd has opened a new office in Canterbury to deal with dental surgery sales. The company's existing office in Birmingham will deal with dental sales in the north.

Davidsons Chemists has acquired Dalgarno Pharmacy of Ladybank, Fife. The group now has 21 pharmacies.

GlaxoSmithKline to review discounts

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to review its controversial discount scheme as a result of the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and Smith-Kline Beecham. In the meantime, the existing schemes will continue.

Pharmacists should by now have received a letter from Chris Tovey, GlaxoSmithKline's director of retail operations, asking them for their views on how to improve the existing schemes.

“We feel that this new scheme could best help us to support developments taking place in the changing world of pharmacy,” says Mr Tovey.

Starting next month, the company is to seek views from a spectrum of pharmacists, including independents, along with local, regional and national chains, on how to develop a scheme with mutual benefits. Others can call the company's customer care line on 0800 0856058.

Glaxo first launched its direct discount scheme in 1992, before it became Glaxo-Wellcome, amid great hostility from both pharmacies and wholesalers, who both believed that the scheme would be detrimental to their financial interests.

Rather than selling products to wholesalers at a discount, much of which was then passed on to pharmacies, Glaxo imposed a scheme which entailed paying wholesalers a management fee for dealing in the company's products and giving pharmacies a direct discount related to the value of their Glaxo purchases.

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Maggots and Viagra win Queen's Awards

Sterile maggots for cleaning wounds and Viagra (sildenafil) have won innovation awards in the 2001 Queen's Awards for Enterprise announced on March 21.

The maggots are larvae of the common greenbottle, Lucilia sericata, and are used to treat infected or necrotic wounds. They are produced by the Biosurgical Research Unit of the Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory at the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, and sold under the name LarvE.

Dr Steve Thomas, MRPharmS, director, Biosurgical Research Unit, said that he hoped that the Queen's Award would “encourage others to try this somewhat unusual but highly effective form of treatment”. So far, over 18,000 treatment packs have been distributed to more than 800 centres in Europe.

Pfizer Ltd has won a Queen's Award for the development of Viagra, which was discovered at its research laboratories at Sandwich, Kent. The product is the first licensed oral treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Eli Lilly & Co Ltd has been awarded its third Queen's Award for export achievement, now called international trade. Previous awards were received in 1974 and 1996. Over 70 per cent of the company's products are now sold overseas, particularly in Europe but also in the Middle East, Australia, South America and Canada. The company has achieved substantially larger growth than it did to win its 1996 award, with sales up over 40 per cent in two years, and at a higher level of sales.

This year 133 awards have been made — 76 for international trade, 42 for innovation and 15 in the new category of sustainable development. Last year 116 awards were made. Award winners can use the Queen's Award emblem in promotional materials for five years.

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OTC sales growth matches inflation

Sales of over-the-counter medicines and food supplements in the United Kingdom show an overall growth in value of just 2.5 per cent for 2000 over 1999. This is in line with the overall rate of inflation.

The greatest growth was in the anti-allergy sector, with an increase of 7.6 per cent over the previous year. Sleeping aids came next at 6.2 per cent, followed by eye care at 5.9 per cent.

Year on year figures on smoking cessation, given for the first time, show growth in value of 5.2 per cent. Sales of products to treat cough, colds and sore throat grew by just 0.7 per cent.

Sales of food supplements overall were hit by scares about very high doses of certain nutrients, such as vitamin C, and concerns over interactions with herbal medicines, resulting in sales being down by 1.5 per cent. However, this still remains the third largest market with a combined value of £305.3m. Pain relief comes top at £389.6m, with cough, colds and sore throat second at £340.8m.

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