Seite wählen

The Celesio wholesale subsidiary Gehe of the former Celesio AG based in Stuttgart will soon be completely taken over by Walgreens Boots Alliance (Alliance HealthCare Germany) after the antitrust authorities have given their approval.

The German pharmaceutical wholesaler Gehe is a subsidiary of the US group McKesson; Walgreens Boots Alliance is also a renowned US group with activities in Germany and Europe. Both German subsidiaries will soon merge into one company under the management of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), giving it a market share in this country of 30 percent. McKesson will then become 100 percent owned by WBA, having previously announced a merger in 2019 and making it official a year later. However, a year ago WBA already acquired 70 percent while Gehe parent McKesson retained 30 percent of the joint venture.

Pharmaceutical wholesaler competitor Phoenix acquired McKesson’s European operations, both in the wholesaler and pharmacy chain businesses. As a result, Gehe is now part of WBA; the European businesses were acquired from competitor Phoenix. Countries such as France, Belgium, Ireland Italy, Portugal and Slovenia will be supplied by Phoenix in the future. WBA intends to continue to drive and control the expansion of services for manufacturers and pharmacies in this country. In future, the parent company WBA will be responsible for German Gehe-Alliance business.

For German pharmacists, however, the WBA announcement is causing confusion and uncertainty, because many questions arise in connection with the complete takeover. For example, will branches have to be closed, which would lead to a thinning out of services, or do they have to fear mergers? The employees of Gehe and AHD are also worried about the future and fear for their jobs.

Source: www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de