Business News summary

GSK to cut UK manufacturing sites Over 1,000 jobs in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United Kingdom are to be lost over the next three years as GlaxoSmithKline Plc restructures its prescription and consumer medicine manufacturing operations...[more]

Money-back guarantees pass ABPI code Money-back outcomes guarantees for prescription medicines are an acceptable method of promotion, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority has ruled...[more]

Nucare unveils branded pharmacy Nucare Plc unveiled the first of five pharmacies to carry its own branding at Finedon Pharmacy, Finedon, Northamptonshire on June 1...[more]

NEWS IN BRIEF

Numark business development Numark Ltd is to appoint business development managers to help its shareholders implement the company’s retail schemes. The new managers will be responsible for recruiting pharmacists to take part in medicines management initiatives.

AAH starts dispensing courses Two training courses for dispensing assistants are now available from AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The foundation course requires 30 hours to be spent in the dispensary. The dispensing assistant training course lasts for one year and is split into six modules. Details are available from Linda Clarke on 024 7643 2346.

Moss buys Scottish chain Moss Pharmacy has acquired the Scottish pharmacy group Harry Cockburn (Chemists) Ltd. The group has four pharmacies in Motherwell, two in Carluke and two in Hamilton. The group’s director, Ian Johnstone, will represent the company at the Scottish Pharmaceutical Federation.

GSK to cut UK manufacturing sites

Over 1,000 jobs in pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United Kingdom are to be lost over the next three years as GlaxoSmithKline Plc restructures its prescription and consumer medicine manufacturing operations.

The company announced on June 14 that it is to close its site at Speke, Liverpool, over the next three years with the loss of up to 500 jobs. The site predominantly manufactures CFC-containing asthma inhalers which are being phased out under the 1995 Montreal protocol on ozone-depleting substances. A further 400 job cuts are planned at GSK’s Barnard Castle site in County Durham. The site currently employs around 1,500 people and will remain one of the company’s largest manufacturing sites in the world. Around 170 jobs will be lost in Devon over the next two years when GSK closes a consumer products manufacturing plant at Plymouth formerly owned by Block Drug Inc, a company which was taken over by SmithKline Beecham shortly before its merger with Glaxo Wellcome.

GlaxoSmithKline is also proposing to sell its bulk active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing site at Montrose, Angus, in Scotland. The site will be sold as a going concern with a number of GSK products continuing to be manufactured under long-term contract. The site employs 720 people.

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Money-back guarantees pass ABPI code

Money-back outcomes guarantees for prescription medicines are an acceptable method of promotion, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority has ruled.

The authority was asked by a pharmacy manager to rule on a clinical trial being run by Pfizer Ltd as reported in Pulse, the GP newspaper. Pfizer explained that the clinical trial is a pilot project to test the feasibility of offering an outcomes guarantee on its product Lipitor (atorvastatin). GPs in the trial can prescribe any statin for appropriate patients. At the end of the trial an independent assessment will be made and a notional financial rebate calculated for patients who received Lipitor but who failed to achieve predetermined targets for cholesterol lowering. The payment would have been made to the relevant health authority. (The trial would have originally made a payment but this was vetoed by an ethics committee).

The complainant alleged that the payment, if made, would be an unacceptable inducement to prescribe Pfizer’s product. However, the PMCPA decided that, in principle, it was not necessarily unacceptable to offer some sort of outcome guarantee.

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Nucare unveils branded pharmacy

Nucare Plc unveiled the first of five pharmacies to carry its own branding at Finedon Pharmacy, Finedon, Northamptonshire on June 1.

The refurbished pharmacy features the Nucare logo on its facia, fittings and staff uniforms. It has been extended into the neighbouring property and during the refit more space was allocated to non-prescription medicines and to a counselling area.

Finedon Pharmacy has been owned by Phillip Longstaff for over 20 years. It serves the village of Finedon which has a population of around 5,000 people.

Alan Turner, special projects manager, Nucare, says that the five pilot pharmacies will be in the North West, Midlands, South West and London and will cover different shopping areas from rural locations to urban shopping malls. He wants Nucare members to visit one or more of the pilot pharmacies, once they are established, to see how their own businesses can be developed.

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