The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7239 p327
8 March 2003

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CoMedis (www.comedis.com)

CoMedis launches OTC order and information site

An online transfer order and information service aimed primarily at independent community pharmacists was launched last week.

The service will allow community pharmacists to place orders with a wide range of manufacturers for non-prescription medicines, nutritional supplements and health and beauty products. The system also offers access to additional information, such as promotional offers, market information, business support and training materials.

Speaking at a press conference in London, Mike Owen, director and company secretary, CoMedis, and director of commercial affairs, Proprietary Association of Great Britain, said that at launch over half of the United Kingdom's non-prescription products were already available through the service.

The service is free to use and is provided by CoMedis, a new company set up by the PAGB along with Crookes Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson MSD, Novartis Consumer Health, Pfizer Consumer Health and Roche Consumer Health. It is based on a service developed by Starpharms, which has been live for the past 16 months (PJ, 10 March 2001, p309). Starpharms remains an operational partner in this new venture.

The service is available to all community pharmacies in the UK. It can be accessed 24 hours a day either via the company's website (www.comedis.com) or via NPAnet.

John D'Arcy, chief executive, National Pharmaceutical Association, welcomes the initiative. "We are delighted to support this concept. Pharmacists spend too much time on administration and not enough with patients. Anything that can free their time and put them at the interface with patients, we are all for it," he said.