The ultimate in H&B convenience, or another pharmacist missing an open goal…?

                                                                                                               pic: Streetoutpost.com

Think about the effort required to punch through an apathy-inducing media-flood, successfully engage with a consumer suffering from a minor ailment, unwilling to ‘trouble the doctor’, but still wanting medical advice, prepared to make a journey to a pharmacy, with little or no instore guidance on where to ask, suffer the potential embarrassment of describing symptoms to a ‘stranger’, and willing to accept advice that, in the circumstances, over-rides the normal price obstacle, and if successful, is more than likely to tell a friend….

In these unprecedented times, a consumer self-presenting in this manner at point-of-purchase and being ignored, eventually has to represent an opportunity for multiple retailers...

The resulting move from opportunity to threat is a real pity, especially when independent pharmacists have had at least thirty years to get it right… 

Sainsbury's expand hospital pharmacy network - NHS missing a trick?

News that the UK’s No. 2 retailer plans to open four new outpatient hospital pharmacies each year, helping it to meet its ambitious target of doubling its pharmacy revenues over the next three years, indicates that the principle of applying state-of-art retailing expertise to the management hospital pharmacies works sufficiently well to encourage roll-out of the process...

Sainsbury’s opened its first outpatient pharmacy, at James Cook University Hospital, in February 2012 and this was followed by the outpatient pharmacies at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in December.

Mike Coupe, Sainsbury’s Group Commercial Director, said: "As we grow our network of outpatient pharmacies the feedback we receive from patients and the NHS trusts we work with has been overwhelmingly positive. The experience we have gained from these, combined with that of running over 270 in-store pharmacies, gives us confidence that by expanding our network of outpatient pharmacies we will be able to offer a greater level of service to the NHS and wider community."

The NHS missing a trick?
Whilst the Sainsbury's initiative is a major step forward of great benefit to all stakeholders, are the NHS missing a trick by not tapping into one of Sainsbury's key areas of expertise – procurement?

Why not second a few of Sainsbury's best buyers to help manage the procurement process on behalf of the NHS?

Whilst public sector contracts might be more complicated and difficult to terminate, surely Sainsbury's could bring considerable clarity and focus to the process of selection, and negotiation.

With an emphasis on output rather than input, an instinct for patient need-satisfaction but especially the incorporation of realistic KPIs and a drive for effectiveness, a grocer’s input might make a real difference…

Boots breaks the 'silence' as it agrees deal with China firm

Alliance Boots, under the terms of a strategic alliance agreement signed yesterday, announced that it will acquire a 12% stake in Nanjing Pharmaceutical Company Limited, through a private placement, for a total consideration of approximately £56 million (RMB560 million), making it the second largest shareholder with Board and operational management representation.

Boots China profile
Nanjing Pharmaceutical Company Limited, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is the fifth largest pharmaceutical wholesaler in China with sales of around £2 billion (RMB20 billion) in 2011.
Alliance Boots first entered the Chinese pharmaceutical distribution market in 2008 through its Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals Corporation joint venture, which operates in complementary geographies and continues its successful development.

A powerful stepping-stone...
In all, with this latest move Boots is aiming at gaining a 20-30% share of the Chinese pharmaceutical distribution market. Apart from the inevitable appeal of adding a retail element in China asap, this major wholesale step is a clear indicator that even without the Walgreens’ tie-up, Alliance Boots is determined to pursue its policy of increasing its global reach and scale.

This will not only make it more influential in the Walgreens-Boots mix, but will be another step in making the company one of the most connected and centrally-run health & beauty operations in the world, at least in the short and medium term, say five years.

Impact on suppliers
This increasingly scalable company will continue to be heavily geared in a global economic environment. As a result there will be increasing pressure on the company to provide an exit strategy for its stakeholders via re-flotation.

All of this adds up to increasing power and influence in its relationships with suppliers, a position that will inevitably cause it to bring issues like prices & terms disparities, and especially absolute cost-prices to the negotiation table.

Action
It hopefully goes without saying that any supplier wishing stay in the ring needs to factor the full global profile of W-B into the mix, fast.
….and if anyone, anywhere in your company still needs convincing of the obvious, why not run the numbers on Walgreens-Boots owning even 20% of global Health & Beauty retail & wholesale, with power to match…  

Wal-Mart Increases Buying Muscle in Prescription Medicines…

( A small step for W-M, a monumental move in cost-reduction of healthcare provision, everywhere…)
In the US, Wal-Mart' new partnership with Caterpillar Inc means the retailer will negotiate with manufacturers and supply ethical pharmaceuticals to Caterpillar's 70,000 employees, a service that will probably be extended to other major companies wishing to reduce employee healthcare costs.
In doing so, Wal-mart will bypass the Pharmacy Benefit Manager system*, which accounts for over 70% of ethical pharmaceutical medicines dispensed in the US.
Questions:
- How well will prescription medicine contract-negotiators handle Wal-Mart buyers?
- When will W-M try to aggregate their purchases of OTC and Ethicals from individual manufacturers?
- How long before Tesco, Carrefour, Alliance Boots explore their options?
- Given the global financial crisis, how long before governments everywhere see this as a way of further reducing healthcare costs?
- A new momentum for parapharmacy?

NB Even if this is a million miles from your immediate day-job, why not point your healthcare colleagues/network-partners at this blog-item, by way of early warning of the type of negotiating customary in your category…?

(*A Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) is a third party administrator of prescription drug programmes. They are primarily responsible for processing and paying prescription drug claims. They also are responsible for developing and maintaining the formulary, contracting with pharmacies, and negotiating discounts and rebates with drug manufacturers. Responsible for approx 70% of US prescription medicine purchases)

Alliance-Boots global ambitions?

Any residual doubts about the Alliance-Boots global gameplan, following rumours that AB are circling Phoenix?
This puts A.S. Watson under pressure (they should have taken Phoenix, now they need to go for Celesio to catch up. etc. etc.).
My latest bespoke webinar focuses on the potential moves and their UK/EU/Global implications for you, at all levels.
Because of the scale of the initial purchase, with KKR involvement, all at the beginning of the credit crunch, it is important that AB achieve global critical mass, profitablyin order to provide an exit route for private equity in 4-5 years...