Archive for the ‘Press Coverages’ Category

Avicenna Pharmacy announce Dudley Taylor acquisition

As part of a long-standing strategy to grow the business, I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Dudley Taylor Pharmacies Ltd, consisting of 57 stores. This will take our estate to 101 branches.

The new pharmacies are located across Yorkshire, the Midlands, the South of England, and Wales. These are all community based, with a mixture of Neighbourhood, High Street and Health Centre locations.

Dudley Taylor pharmacies are a great fit for the Avicenna family and perfectly complement our existing locations across the North East and the South of England. I look forward to working with our new colleagues and further investing in the stores to help build on their already outstanding level of patient care.

Over the past year we have invested significantly in the future of our business. As well as upgrading and rebranding stores, we have also founded AviLab, our new tech business unit. AviLab will focus on investments in technologies that can bring substantial benefits to both our stores and those of our independent members, driving innovations for the pharmacy of the future. This dedicated team are initially focusing on further developing our current pharmacy applications which are both seeing rapid growth. These are AviBuyer, our integrated purchasing system and Manage My Meds, our patient app.

I feel passionate and excited about the future of UK pharmacy. Avicenna will continue to invest in the sector, across both our own retail pharmacies as well as our independent member support organisation.

Avicenna were advised by Charles Russell Speechlys LLP and Hazlewoods LLP.

For any questions of for more info please contact alexandra.phelps@avicenna.org.

11th Avicenna Media Awards

City Hall was the impressive venue for this year’s media awards. We were joined by industry experts, pharmacy journalists, Avicenna members and staff to recognise the incredible effort made by the trade press to raise the profile of independent pharmacists in the UK. The judges were blown away by the quality of entries and impressed by the efforts the journalists demonstrate to uncover key stories and secure important interviews.

Thomas Cox was crowned Pharmacy Writer of the Year for his story on medicine shortages that lead to national newspaper, TV and radio coverage raising the profile of our plight. Training Matters scooped the Best Educational Support category for its ongoing commitment to training for the whole pharmacy team. Valeria Fiore (C&D) proved her potential by winning Best Newcomer and Emma Wilkinson won the Freelancer of the Year category for her exceptional research ability. The final category, Best Support for Independent Pharmacists was won for the second year by The Pharmacist for their commitment to highlighting the issues around FMD and practical help with unannounced inspections.

Thank you to our wonderful sponsors Charles Russell Speechleys, Coversure, Cripps Pemberton Greenish, Datamatics and Emis Health for making this event such a success. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event!

Bharti Patel – Avicenna Managing Director

Since the recent merger of Avicenna and Juno in September 2019 we have worked closely to better understand the needs of our members during this time of change. We recognise the challenge pharmacy is facing as the model changes, moving more towards a service led offering.

We are committed to support our members with a membership value offering that is reflective of their current and future needs from a profit, revenue, regulatory and services perspective.

We are delighted to announce that with immediate effect we are strengthening the leadership team at Avicenna by implementing the following changes:

Bharti Patel has been appointed to take up the newly created role of Avicenna Managing Director. Bharti brings with her a wealth of experience across retail pharmacy, homecare, NHS commissioning and Medtech. She has a successful track record of delivering outstanding value through commercial and operational performance as well as strategic partnerships with suppliers and customers.

Bharti will make it a priority to visit members with the team and will also be setting up a members’ advisory forum.

Salim Jetha will step into the role of Chairman. This new role will allow Salim to focus on innovation, strategic projects and member engagement. This is a key role as we invest in the development of the Avicenna offering by bringing new opportunities for our members. Salim will work closely with Bharti and continue to engage with and enhance our member relationships and industry networks, as well as contribute to strategic initiatives.

This is an exciting time for Avicenna and we look forward to accelerating our many planned initiatives to take Avicenna and its members to the next level.

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