The British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW) plans to open up its membership to non-wholesalers next month, the organisation has told C+D.

The Healthcare Distributors Association UK (HDA UK) will replace the BAPW with a broader remit to “better represent the future of medicines supply," BAPW chief executive Martin Sawer told C+D on Friday (January 15).

Although wholesalers will remain "at the centre" of the new organisation, the HDA UK will be able to represent "member companies [who] now provide more varied and comprehensive healthcare services", Mr Sawer said in an exclusive interview last week (January 15).

"[The new name] describes what we will be doing in the future, which is distributing healthcare, and that might be wholesale or it might not," he told C+D.

“It’s about opening the door to more novel types of distribution – things we don’t even know are out there yet,” he said.

Members of the new organisation will have to show that the “prime aim” of their business is distribution, Mr Sawer added.

Pharmacy minister Alistair Burt will officially launch the HDA UK on February 3 at an event in parliament hosted by all-party pharmacy group (APPG) chair Kevin Barron, the BAPW said. 

How could the new organisation benefit pharmacists?

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