Leo Pharma, one of the leaders in medical dermatology, has appointed Kasper Künzel as Interim Vice President and General Manager for its UK and Ireland
business.
Kasper is an established leader within Leo Pharma, having previously been Vice President, IPO Preparedness Office, at Leo Pharma in Denmark.
Kasper brings over 17 years of pharmaceutical experience, previously taking on local and global leadership positions across Leo Pharma in functions including R&D,
Finance and Commercial. Having first joined Leo Pharma in Denmark in a financial function, his previous roles include General Manager in South Korea, Vice President
of Corporate Transformation, and Director of R&D Business Finance
He commented: "I am delighted to join the Leo Pharma UK and Ireland team and continue to build on the company's strong heritage in these markets. The UK and Ireland
team are committed to the Leo Pharma values as a leader in medical dermatology, and I'm looking forward to all we can achieve together this year.
Teva UK has alerted the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to the problem posed by steep energy prices.
Teva's UK General Manager Kim Innes wrote to the minister seeking assurances that the distribution of medicines to patients will be safeguarded over what's likely
to be a difficult winter.
The problems posed by steep energy prices and the potential for power rationing is putting pharmacies under pressure from increased costs and the risk of losing power
supplies as a 'non-domestic' energy user, said the company.
Kim said: "In our letter to the Secretary of State we acknowledged that the government knows that medicines manufacture is strategically important and that it's a
vital component in maintaining patient health."
"But I wanted to make sure that the Secretary of State also realises the consequences of the energy crisis further down the supply chain - for example, the need for
a pharmacy to have a fridge switched on at all times for storing cold chain products."
Bestway operates approximately 750 pharmacies nationwide in the UK under the Well brand. In April 2023, it completed its acquisition of Lexon, which operates
46 pharmacies in the UK under the Knights Pharmacy brand, and Asurex, a wholesale perfume supplier.
On 26th May 2023, CMA announced the launch of its merger inquiry. A fast-track Phase 1 investigation found that the merger could lead to a significant lessening of
competition between retail pharmacies in 12 local areas located in Liverpool and North East England.
The merging businesses conceded that the deal raises competition concerns in these areas and have submitted proposals to sell pharmacies within these areas to
restore the competition that would otherwise be lost as a result of the deal.
Colin Raftery, CMA Senior Director of Mergers, said: "Pharmacies are essential public health services, and it's vital that the loss of competition brought about
by a deal like this shouldn't leave people with reduced choice or worse services when they need medical support.
The CMA will now carefully consider whether the remedy put forward by Bestway will address its concerns and ensure that customers in the affected areas continue to
have access to good quality chemists.
Britain has approved a new coronavirus vaccine by the Austrian-French drugmaker Valneva.
"An approval has been granted after the Valneva Covid-19 vaccine was found to meet the required safety, quality and effectiveness standards," the Medicines and
Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said in a statement on Thursday (April 14), adding: "It is also the first, whole-virus inactivated Covid-19 vaccine to gain
regulatory approval in the UK."
In vaccines such as Valneva's VLA2001, the virus is grown in a lab and then made completely inactive so that it cannot infect cells or replicate in the body but can still trigger an immune response. It is seen by some as having the potential to win over people wary of some which use new mRNA technology.
Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach said that "this authorisation could pave the way for the availability of an alternative vaccine solution for the UK population."
The UK Government is investing £100 million to accelerate the use of AI in life sciences and healthcare under a new mission.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission in his speech last week.
The new initiative will capitalise on the UK's unique strengths in securing "health data and cutting-edge AI."
It will also help to identify those at risk of "dementia" and will ensure that patients participate in the trials at the right time to develop new treatments
effectively.
Henceforth, it will provide us with better data on how well new therapies work.
Sunak said: "AI can help us solve some of the greatest social challenges of our time. AI could help find novel dementia treatments or develop vaccines for cancer."
Professor Mahendra Patel OBE, CEO of the Oxford University Centre for Research Equity (CfRE), has been appointed as an independent expert member of the UK
Pharmacy Professional Leadership Advisory Board.
The newly established Board comprises nine independent expert members (IEMs) with outstanding leadership capabilities, who were appointed through open recruitment,
ensuring a "broad, balanced, and diverse" representation.
Sir Hugh Taylor KCB, the Independent Chair of the Board, and the UK Chief Pharmaceutical Officers (CPhOs) - Andrew Evans (Wales), Cathy Harrison (Northern Ireland),
Alison Strath (Scotland), and David Webb (England) - announced the appointment of IEMs in an open letter to the UK pharmacy professions.
"Bringing a wealth of experience and expertise, they will play a pivotal role in the Board's work to deliver an exciting vision through supporting a new and dynamic
phase of collaboration," the CPhOs said.
As the CEO of CfRE, Professor Patel spearheads efforts aimed at addressing inequalities in healthcare.
Boehringer Ingelheim UK & Ireland has appointed Vani Manja as its new Country Managing Director and Head of Human Pharma.
Manja has been associated with Boehringer Ingelheim for over 11 years, in successful leadership roles in Germany, the United States and most recently as General
Manager, India.
Her career started as a commissioned officer in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps which preceded leadership roles at Becton Dickinson and McKinsey.
She brings extensive experience of strategy, marketing, sales, business development, people management, and cultural transformation and is passionate about tackling
healthcare inequalities and advancing sustainable healthcare.
Commenting on her new role, Manja said: "It is with great heart that I bring the spirit of conscious leadership to my new role. I look forward to being fully present
and partnering with key stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem in our collective quest to improve health for humans and animals in the UK and Ireland."
Ceuta Group has appointed Michael Yates as chief operating officer (COO).
In his new role, he will focus on the exploration of future acquisitions to support the Group's growth plans and ensure it continues to provide innovative services
and unlock new opportunities for its clients.
Prior to joining Ceuta Group, Yates was associated with Procter & Gamble (P&G) for more than 25 years. His career started in the UK and progressed through senior
commercial and managing director roles across Europe, Africa and Asia.
During his time at P&G, Yates gained insight and experience in building brands in the UK and globally. He has broad category experience across food & drink as well
as health, wellness and personal care, having worked with brands such as Pringles, Sunny Delight, Oral B, Vicks, Head & Shoulders and Pantene.
With extensive international experience, Michael brings client-side knowledge and insight of successfully expanding brands and adapting business models for markets
across the globe. His appointment bolsters Ceuta Group's leadership structure and will support the Group's growth plans and delivery of superior client service.
A pharmacy group operating in London and the surrounding areas has said it's cliched a financial deal worth £4.25 million with a major global bank to bolster
its mergers and acquisitions activity.
Osbon Pharmacy Group said on Monday (19 June) that it would use the multi-million-pound funding package from HSBC UK to also invest in bringing accessible and
comprehensive medical services closer to the doorstep of Londoners and people of South East England.
The family-run business said the new money will open new position which will include opportunities for pharmacists, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians,
dispensers, accounts clerks and delivery drivers, taking the company's total headcount to 185.
The group, which currently has 26 pharmacies across London and South East England, was established in 2005.
The company offers a range of medicine and prescription services as well as offering customary help and advice. It switched to banking with HSBC UK last year as
part of a £6.9M refinance package, which saw the business acquire nine pharmacies and takes the total funding provided by HSBC UK to date to £11.1m.
American healthcare technology company Omnicell has appointed Edward Platt as the new Senior Commercial Director of its UK community pharmacy division.
Along with this new role, Edward, who joined Omnicell in 2015, will continue his current leadership remit for Omnicell's UK & Ireland hospital division.
He will be leading a revamped commercial team, which would be responsible for increasing Omnicell's footprint of automation and consumable solutions delivered into
UK community pharmacies.
As part of the revamp, the company has created dedicated specialist teams to ensure the needs and challenges of community pharmacists (small independents and small
multiple operators) can be fully understood and supported.
European asset management group Aurelius has completed the acquisition of McKesson UK, marking the company's fifth completed transaction in a year.
McKesson UK is the parent company of a number of healthcare businesses including LloydsPharmacy, John Bell & Croyden and AAH Pharmaceuticals.
It comprises four divisions and holds a substantial market share across each vertical: retail, digital, homecare and wholesale. McKesson UK's success has been underpinned by its strong LloydsPharmacy brand, its customer base and its leading commercial footprint across wholesale pharmaceuticals.
Over recent years, the company has benefited from the introduction of additional services delivered across its more than 1,300 pharmacies, a growing digital offering and the ability to support the increasing trend of primary care being delivered to patients in their home.
The government has launched a consultation into radically changing the Statutory Scheme for branded medicines (known as the Statutory Scheme).
The consultation comes as delicate negotiations for replacing the alternative Voluntary Scheme are underway, potentially undermining these talks, while also further
damaging industry confidence in the UK as a viable place to research, launch and supply medicine.
The government proposals seek to hold average revenue clawback rates under the Statutory Scheme at historic highs of between 21-27%, compared to the pre-pandemic
averages of 9.4% for the Statutory Scheme (2019-2021), and 6.88% for the Voluntary Scheme (2014-2021). The accompanying cost-benefit analysis ignores any negative
impact this may have on medicine supply and wrongly claims it will boost investment.
The consultation comes on the heels of government data last week showing UK life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 47% between 2021 and 2022, down
by £900m year on year. This large fall in investment coincided with a rise in the main UK clawback rate under the Voluntary Scheme from 5% to 15%, and led to the
UK falling from 2nd to 9th out of 18 comparator countries for life sciences FDI in 2022. The Voluntary Scheme clawback rate now sits at a record 26.5% in 2023.
In the next 10 years, the incidence of first-time stroke cases in the UK is projected to increase by 60 per cent, costing the government £75bn in
healthcare and lost productivity, a charity has suggested.
A new manifesto published by the Stroke Association has urged the next UK government to make stroke "the priority", stressing that the next decade is crucial
for stroke prevention, treatment and recovery.
Currently, stroke is the UK's fourth biggest killer and a leading cause of disability. On a daily basis, 281 individuals experience a stroke. Next year, the cost
of stroke in the UK will be £43 billion.
The charity predicted that by 2035, there will be 151,000 hospital admissions due to stroke every year, averaging 414 admissions per day, with 42,000 people
estimated to die every year.
In 2035, the UK is projected to have 2.1 million stroke survivors, imposing a financial burden of £75 billion on the public purse, nearly half the current NHS budget.
US biotech firm Moderna will build a new research and manufacturing centre in Britain to develop vaccines against new Covid-19 variants, other respiratory
illnesses and help improve readiness for any future pandemics.
The facility is expected to start producing shots in 2025 and Britain has made a commitment to buy Moderna's vaccines for the next decade under the agreement.
Moderna's Covid-19 vaccines, which use messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, were among those deployed in Britain to tackle the crisis and enable prime minister Boris
Johnson to reopen the economy from stringent lockdowns.
Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said the priority was to develop a shot combining refreshed boosters against Covid, flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
"By building a plant in the UK, we are also providing the UK Government - which has a long term partnership with us, with this agreement - with the ability to be
pandemic ready," Bancel said on Wednesday.
British Pharma giant, GSK is planning to invest more than £200 million (about $253 million) into the United Kingdom over the next two years to strengthen
its manufacturing network.
The money will be used to improve the pharmaceutical group's UK sites, including construction of new facilities and assembly lines, The Daily Mail first reported
on Sunday.
GSK has already earmarked £67 million to upgrade its manufacturing site in Montrose, Scotland, where a new production facility is being constructed. The upgrade
is expected to help boost its production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for the future supply of medicines.
Regis Simard, head of global supply chain, told the publication that their six UK manufacturing sites, including Montrose, are an important part of their global
manufacturing network.
Opella Healthcare, trading as Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, said it has entered into a dual partnership agreement with Alliance Healthcare and Phoenix
Healthcare Distribution for the wholesale supply of its products to UK pharmacies.
In effect from the start of February, the new dual partnership will ensure Sanofi Consumer Healthcare 'continues to provide its customers with exceptional
customer service', the company said, adding that the increased efficiency will facilitate improved service levels and stock availability of Cialis Together,
Allevia, Buscopan, Dulcolax and Phenergan to community pharmacies in the UK.
"At Sanofi Consumer Healthcare we are committed to supporting the self-care agenda in the UK," Nick Linton, head of UK country operations, commented.
"Making healthcare as simple as it should be to bring health and wellbeing to all is a key priority for us in 2024 and beyond. Our new wholesale model reflects our
deep commitment to working as efficiently as possible in close partnership with pharmacists to shape a healthier future."
Alliance Healthcare, the UK's largest pharmaceutical wholesaler, announced today (December 7) the appointment of Marie Evans as its new managing director.
Evans, who is the current commercial and category director of the firm, will report to Juan Guerra, Alliance Healthcare's senior vice president and managing director of International Wholesale.
Commenting on the new appointment, Guerra said: "The last 18 months has shown just how important wholesale and distribution is to the NHS and I am so excited to
welcome Marie to her new position at this critical time.
"Her experience and leadership will be key as we continue to evolve our services in response to the changing needs of pharmacy, the health service, and industry."
Researchers from the University of Oxford today (December 8) started recruiting for a clinical trial to test novel antiviral Covid-19 treatments for early use in the illness by people in the community and those who are at higher risk of complications.
Partnering with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), colleagues in several UK universities, and the NHS UK-wide, the Platform Adaptive trial of NOvel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of Covid-19 In the Community (PANORAMIC), is a national priority trial, and will be open to participants from across the UK.
The first treatment to be tested by the UK Antiviral Taskforce will be molnupiravir, a Covid antiviral pill already licensed by the MHRA.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve molnupiravir, which was jointly developed by U.S.-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, in November.
Professional leadership bodies from around the world discussed workforce shortages in community pharmacy and other challenges affecting the sector at a global
meeting held in Paris last month.
Delegated from Denmark, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, US and the UK updated the conference on how the profession was progressing in practice,
technology and workforce development in their respective countries.
The UK was represented at World Pharmacy Council meeting by National Pharmacy Association chair Andrew Lane and chief executive at the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison.
Lane said: "It's very useful to be part of a global network of pharmacy bodies who are all going through similar challenges as we are in the UK. Sharing intelligence
on other pharmacy systems around the world helps us to prepare the right strategy for engaging with the NHS at home.
"Hearing some of the strides in services and digital technology in the profession gives us hope for the future of the sector. It's clear however that key challenges
such as workforce shortages are starting to have an effect in other parts of the world too."
Medical sector has the third highest number of businesses currently for sale, with hospitality and retail technology firms most likely to sell up next year,
according to the UK Business Investment Report.
There are 4,300 registered medical businesses in the UK, and approximately 355 (one in every 12.11) are currently up for sale.
Topping the list was the hospitality sector with one in every 9.88 businesses up for sale, ahead of retail technology businesses (1 in 10.13).
At the bottom of the table were owners of agriculture businesses with just one in every 943 businesses up for sale. Transportation and software/IT business
owners followed in a similar manner with one in every 802 businesses being up for sale.