Shire Pharmaceuticals has unveiled plans to further limit the number of full-line wholesalers supplying its products later this year.

From May 1, Shire will be dropping AAH from its supplier list, leaving only  Alliance Healthcare and Pheonix Healthcare.

"I am confident we will develop even stronger working partnerships with fewer wholesalers, enabling us to be more responsive to the ongoing changes in the NHS," she said.

James Lindsay, head of corporate relations for AAH Pharmaceuticals, told C+D that AAH was disappointed with the decision. "We believe we have delivered a highly effective operational and commercial service to Shire, our dispensing customers and ultimately patients," he said. "We still contend that including AAH would have been in the best interests of Shire, our customers and patients."

Mark Stephenson, commercial healthcare director for Alliance Healthcare, said the wholesaler was delighted to have been selected to continue to work with Shire.

"Alliance Healthcare is committed to maintaining the highest levels of service on these products, and we will be communicating full details of this latest supply chain change to all customers in preparation for go-live on May 1," he said.

In Northern Ireland, Alliance Healthcare has sub-contracted the delivery of Shire products to Sangers (NI). Alliance Healthcare and Sangers will be contacting customers directly in this region to confirm the specific ordering process.

Earlier this year, C+D published a downloadable guide with details on all the latest supply deals.