Novartis confirms plan for direct-to-pharmacy supply arrangements
Novartis has announced that it will be changing its product distribution to a direct-to-pharmacy model, realising pharmacy bodies' fears that further manufactures would go down that route.
The Journal reported in December last year (PJ, 16 December 2006, p725)
that Novartis was “considering all options available to more closely
partner with [pharmacy]”. Lilly UK and AstraZeneca also confirmed
a shake-up of
their distribution arrangements at that time.
But Novartis has not revealed many details of its plans, and has not
specified whether it will use a number of wholesalers or distributors,
or follow Pfizer’s lead in choosing a single distributor. In a
statement, Novartis said that it would be engaging with a number of distribution
businesses and that no decisions have been made at this stage. “We
intend consulting with a wide range of stake holders, including community
pharmacists, before making any decisions,” the company confirmed.
John D’Arcy, National Pharmacy Association chief executive, said: “We
definitely want to hear what Novartis has to say. It is important to
know what they plan to do so that we can feed back our views.”
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