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The road is clear for a new large online pharmacy in Switzerland. Bernese health group Galenica and Shop Apotheke Europe could enter into a strategic partnership, competition authorities have approved. This creates competition with Migros online pharmacy.
Competition authorities in Switzerland and Austria have approved the planned joint venture between Galenica AG and Shop Apotheke Europe, Galenica AG announced on Thursday evening.
Asked by Keystone-SDA, a media spokesperson said the Competition Commission’s (Weko) decision was made on Thursday. This paves the way for “establishing Switzerland’s leading online pharmacy”. The process regarding the establishment of the joint venture will be completed on May 16, 2023.
At the end of March 2023, Galenica and Shop Apotheke Europe announced that they will merge the business activities of the private pharmacy Mediservice AG and the online pharmacy shop-apotheke.ch in a joint venture.
Europe’s leading online pharmacy
Mediservice and shop-apotheke.ch said they would ideally complement each other. Mediservice is the leading private pharmacy in Switzerland, focusing on the shipment of prescription drugs. Shop Apotheke Europe is Europe’s leading online pharmacy that operates shop-apotheke.ch, a rapidly growing digital health platform in Switzerland.
In the joint venture, Mediservice AG will take over the commercial activities of shop-apotheke.ch and form the joint venture company.
Galenica sells 51 percent of Mediservice AG’s shares in Shop Apotheke Europe and also pays 29 million Euros in cash. In return, Galenica will receive an 8 percent stake in Shop Apotheke Europe as part of the capital increase.
Competition for Migros pharmacy
The timing of the transaction is getting to an exciting point: At the start of the year, pharmacy rival Zur Rose announced that it would sell its Swiss business to orange giant Migros as it wanted to focus on its German business. Therefore, the new joint venture announced is in direct competition with this expanding Migros business.
Since Thursday, shares of the Zur Rose Group mail order pharmacy have been trading on the Swiss Six Exchange under the new name Docmorris and the new stock symbol DOCM (formerly ROSE). At the Annual General Meeting on May 4, shareholders approved the renaming of Zur Rose as Docmorris AG. The Swiss business, now owned by Migros, will continue its activities under the Zur Rose brand. (SDA)
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
