The UK Pharmacy Market

The UK Pharmacy Market

Summary

The UK pharmacy market continued its recovery in 2015, increasing its estimated value by 4.6%, the fastest rate of growth in over 10 years. This has been driven by NHS receipts revenue, which grew 4.9%, outperforming the smaller OTC component of the total pharmacy market. Higher inflation contributed to growth, as prescription costs rose by 0.15p to £8.20 in England, while the OTC market has been lifted by improvements in consumer confidence, with people more willing to spend on self-care, health and wellbeing.

Key Findings

• The number of prescriptions handled per pharmacy has continued to rise, albeit at a slower rate than in the past, putting pharmacies under pressure to increase efficiency and potentially undermining their attempts to develop services alongside their traditional role in dispensing.
• The NHS in England is promoting greater use of hub and spoke dispensing (automated centralized assembly of prescriptions at the “hub” prior to dispensing to patients in the pharmacy or “spoke”) as a means of driving efficiency within the community pharmacy system. It will free up staff time within the pharmacy as well as reducing the possibility of dispensing inaccuracies and in-store stock holdings.
• Smaller specialists including independent operators are currently an important segment of the market but they are set to suffer as pressures increase on funding and larger operators make use of their economies of scale. Current proposals for government funding reductions could lead to significant numbers of these operators closing or being forced to sell up, furthering consolidation and the trend towards growth of larger specialist national chains.

Synopsis

Pharmacy retailing explores growth trends, opportunities, inhibitors and future success strategies in the UK pharmacy market. It includes the latest market sizes for NHS receipts and OTC medicines and market shares for the leading players.

It provides in-depth analysis of the following:

• The Hot Issues
• What People Buy
• Where People Shop
• Market trends

Reasons To Buy

• Understand the impact on pharmacy retailing of government funding cuts and how it will lead to consolidation in the market.
• Use the detailed data and insight on the market, including NHS receipts and OTC, to help form an effective growth strategy
• Understand what the potential Lloyds acquisition of Sainsbury’s pharmacy business will mean for other players in the market.
• Identify the opportunities to grow business in this sector by comparing strategies of the key players in the market and their performance metrics
• Learn how the UK's ageing population and a growing interest in health and well-being will impact the market, allowing you to develop product ranges that are better targeted.