Novartis has become the latest firm to consider shaking up its supply chain in the UK, a move that will cause fresh concern in the drug wholesaling industry.
The group has sent letters to a number of wholesalers saying it is considering a "direct to pharmacy" arrangement, using the wholesalers only as a logistics provider and paying them a fee for their services. At present Novartis sells most of its drugs to the wholesalers, who sell them on to pharmacies and hospitals.
A spokesman for Novartis said: "We will be engaging with a number of distribution businesses and at this point, no decisions have been taken and we are at a very early stage in this process." It said it intended to consult a wide range of parties, including community pharmacists.
GlaxoSmithKline switched to the same model more than 10 years ago. AstraZeneca and Lilly are also considering a change.
Most controversially, Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, recently made UniChem the group's sole distributor of drugs.
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