The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, the Royal College of Pharmacy and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy have jointly written to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to request a review of its guideline on the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults.The letter, coordinated by the GPhC, follows ongoing patient safety concerns associated with propranolol, identified through regulatory work and patient safety intelligence, including fatal overdoses highlighted through Prevention of Future Deaths reports.Propranolol is not currently recommended or mentioned within NICE guideline CG113, but the letter said, "it continues to be commonly prescribed for anxiety disorders, particularly in primary care, as it remains a licensed treatment option.""This is despite limited evidence supporting efficacy for anxiety disorders and the potential for significant harm. Propranolol is more lipophilic than other beta-blockers and readily crosses the blood brain barrier, so in overdose, it carries a higher risk of convulsions in addition to cardiovascular collapse," the letter added.The organisations are asking NICE to review the guideline and make clear that propranolol is not recommended by NICE for the management of anxiety disorders and to highlight the risks associated with overdose.The organisations also ask NICE to consider providing appropriate prescribing and safety advice for circumstances where propranolol is prescribed for anxiety in line with clinical judgement.The signatories include Dr Roz Gittins, Chief Pharmacy Officer at the GPhC; Professor Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England; Dr Emily Kennedy, Head of Professional Standards, Guidance and Patient Safety at the Royal College of Pharmacy; and Nicola Greenhalgh, President of the College of Mental Health Pharmacy.

Leading pharmacy and retail chain Boots has been sold for £6.7 billion in a deal with Wittington Investments, the holding company of Canada's billionaire Weston family.Under the terms of the agreement, Wittington will acquire Boots' retail operations in the UK and Ireland; Boots Opticians; and No7 Beauty Company; and its Thailand and franchised businesses.Wittington will partner with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited on the acquisition, while retaining operational control.Wittington Chairman Galen Weston will be taking over as Chairman of Boots.Sycamore Partners, in partnership with Stefano Pessina and his family, will retain ownership of The Boots Group's other interests in Farmacias Benavides and Alliance Healthcare Deutschland.The transaction is expected to complete during the first quarter of 2027, subject to necessary regulation approvals.Sycamore had acquired Boots 18 months ago from its then parent Walgreens Boots Alliance for $10bn.Established in Nottingham in 1849, Boots has faced challenges in recent years with growing debt and changing shopping habits resulting in more people buying online.It has closed hundreds of branches across the UK, leaving it with about 1,800 currently and 51,000 employees.Terming Boots as "one of Britain's most enduring businesses", Galen Weston said: "We see a meaningful opportunity to make a great business even better through stable long-term ownership, further capital investment, and the renewed operating focus required to serve customers with excellence for generations to come. "We are delighted to partner with Fairfax, which brings an extensive track record of long-term investing in leading retail brands, and shares our conviction in Boots' future."Fairfax Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Prem Watsa said, "We are very pleased to partner with Galen Weston and the Wittington team to acquire Boots, a leading historic brand in the UK and Ireland."The Weston group owns Canada's leading retail chain Loblaw and owns Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's largest pharmacy, health and beauty business.Wittington's longstanding connection to the UK includes its past ownership of Selfridges from 2003-2021.

Key SummaryCommunity pharmacy are dispensing increasing prescription volumes, expanded clinical services and growing population need.Employers continue to face financial pressures and their ability to invest in staff.The sector needs thousands more pharmacists simply to maintain current capacityThe government's ambition to deliver more care closer to home could be undermined by a shortage of workforce capacity in community pharmacy, according to a new report by the Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group (CWDG).The report, Delivering the 10-Year Plan – a review of the community pharmacy workforce, warns that headline workforce growth is not translating into greater capacity in the sector. Record numbers of people are studying pharmacy, entering foundation training and joining the professional register, yet community pharmacy now has less workforce capacity than it did four years ago.Capacity falling as demand risesThe number of full-time equivalent (FTE) community pharmacists has fallen by 14% since 2021, while FTE pharmacy technicians have fallen by 11%.The report said demand for community pharmacy services continues to climb through rising prescription volumes, expanded clinical services and growing population need. "At the same time, workforce growth has not kept pace," it said. "Vacancy rates are still elevated; recruitment remains challenging and employers are facing financial pressures that limit their ability to invest in staff."The CWDG attributed the decline to several factors:significant recruitment into hospitals and general practicea shift towards more part-time workinggrowing numbers of pharmacists pursuing careers outside the NHSSince 2019, about 9,000 additional pharmacy professionals have been funded into GP practices through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS), and about 5,000 into hospitals. Much of that growth came from community pharmacy.Services still growingDespite these pressures, the report said community pharmacies continue to deliver high-quality patient care, and prescription volumes continue to rise. "The commissioning of new pharmacy services means community pharmacies now deliver over 30m clinical touchpoints each year," it said.However, the report cautioned that even with efficiency gains from automation, hub-and-spoke dispensing and better use of skill-mix, the gap between demand and capacity is widening. The sector needs thousands more pharmacists simply to maintain current capacity, before accounting for the expanded role community pharmacy is expected to play under the NHS 10 Year Plan.Long-term workforce strategyThe CWDG is calling on the government and NHS to develop a long-term, system-wide pharmacy workforce strategy as part of the forthcoming NHS workforce plan. The report said measures are needed to ensure professionals "choose community pharmacy, remain in community pharmacy, and can be employed sustainably within community pharmacy settings."It warned: "The Workforce Plan must not rely on a simple assumption that more students will automatically lead to more registrants, or that more registrants will automatically increase workforce capacity."The group wants the plan to reflect the realities of a changing community pharmacy landscape and has set out five priorities:Match workforce supply to projected demand for existing services, alongside the service expansion envisaged in the 10-Year Health Plan.Recognise changing working patterns and career pathways, and account for their impact on workforce capacity.Ensure workforce policies implemented elsewhere in the NHS do not unintentionally destabilise other sectors.Support the retention, development and career progression of pharmacy teams.Provide sustainable funding for both core and additional services, enabling employers to invest in the workforce capacity needed to meet growing demand.Ageing workforce adds to riskThe report also highlighted significant demographic change. Around 7% of community pharmacists and 9% of pharmacy technicians are aged 60 or over and can reasonably be expected to retire within the next decade. In some areas, pharmacists aged 60 or above make up almost one in five of all pharmacists, creating the potential for a wave of retirements.NHS needs to do moreMarc Donovan, Healthcare Development Director at Boots and Chair of The Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group said: “The headline workforce figures paint a positive picture. More people are studying pharmacy, undertaking training and joining the professional register."But those numbers mask what is happening on the ground. Community pharmacy's capacity is shrinking, with fewer full-time equivalent pharmacists available to deliver patient care than four years ago."If the NHS wants community pharmacy to do more, it must plan for the workforce needed to do it. Otherwise, we risk building plans for expanded patient care on capacity that simply isn’t there.”Responding to the CPWDG report, National Pharmacy Association Chief Executive Henry Gregg said: "The report is right that although the pharmacy workforce has grown in recent years, its masks significant challenges and a falling number of FTE pharmacists is concerning, with more and more pharmacists finding careers outside of community pharmacy."However, the work of pharmacists and wider pharmacy teams is changing drastically, including new developments in prescribing, AI, a rise in automation and the development of hub and spoke models in some pharmacies."We agree that the NHS must do more to help manage these changes and support the pharmacy workforce to flourish, improving retention in the sector. This could include commissioning more prescribing in community pharmacies, utilising the skills many pharmacists are developing to provide more services to patients." The CPWDG is a cross-sector working group that brings together education and training leads from across the community pharmacy sector.It also brings together representatives from the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), the Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

Now that we know the winners of the Pharmacy Business Awards 2026, I’m taking a moment to reflect on my role as the Head Judge for this year and the people I met in the process. This was my third year judging the awards. I was once again blown away by the entries we’ve had. It has been lovely to see nominations from people who haven’t entered in previous years. As head judge I have an informal chat/interview with all the shortlisted nominations. While it’s challenging booking these interviews, it is so rewarding. I love learning about the person/team behind the nomination, the history of how they got to where they are now, the great work they do, the technology that they use, their care for the local community, their entrepreneurship, and much more. This year, we saw that more pharmacies have started using robots for dispensing, and they have been switching to newer/updated intuitive PMR systems that utilise AI and increase accuracy. I love learning about the person/team behind the nomination, the history of how they got to where they are now, the great work they do, the technology that they use, their care for the local community, their entrepreneurship, and much moreMany pharmacies are using the various apps that help patients order prescriptions, book appointments for services and access various PGDs for private services. It’s also great to see innovation we’ve seen so many pharmacy owners who have developed their own bespoke apps and booking systems for their pharmacy. It’s heartening to see that there has not been a reduction in staff where these efficiencies have been implemented. Instead, staff have been utilised to maximise services to their local communities.This year, I have seen a strong link with other sectors in primary care. I have interviewed a nominee who has had physiotherapists renting their consultation room for a short time, while they were in between premises, and they now have GPs renting space in their pharmacy so that they can run their surgery from there. This is a contrast to the old model of community pharmacy renting space in a surgery.I have heard many examples of great community pharmacy and general practitioners working together and I suspect that as we increase our footprint in neighbourhoods this will be even more apparent next year. Another pharmacy that entered the awards has opticians working from within their pharmacy.Many pharmacies are embracing innovative private services. One in particular that I heard more about this year was cryotherapy. Pharmacies offering private services are also maximising NHS services. In England, we are soon starting an NHS Independent Prescribing service. It’s reassuring to see that we already have many qualified community pharmacy independent prescribers who are using their qualification to provide private services. I imagine that in five years’ time we will have very few non prescribing pharmacists. I enjoy these interviews, as it brings the written application to life. For many, the journey hasn’t always been easy, but they have persevered and evolved their businesses to make it work – in fact not only work, but excel.Hearing so many of the nominees talk about how their family background has shaped the leaders that they are today has been heartwarming. Hearing stories of how they always knew they wanted to own a community pharmacy and the journey it took for them to get there was inspiring. Many of the pharmacies are run by siblings, a couple, or friends who went to university together. There were no egos, just a clear focus on the business, the team and the local community. The way that they focus on each other’s strengths to get the best results for the business was great to see.I enjoy these interviews, as it brings the written application to life. For many, the journey hasn’t always been easy, but they have persevered and evolved their businesses to make it work – in fact not only work, but excel. The awards evening itself is a special event in the calendar for so many pharmacy owners, pharmacists, pharmacy teams, stakeholders and sponsors. There is nothing like the buzz and atmosphere in the room, as people are networking over lovely food while celebrating the best of the best. It is definitely one for everyone’s diary next year. Congratulations to all the winners for 2026.To register your interest in entering the Pharmacy Business Awards 2027 and to receive details as soon as they are published, please email tanuja.parekh@amg.biz

More than one million people in Great Britain, who have never smoked conventional tobacco, are now regular or occasional vapers, according to the latest date released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). E-cigarettes remain an effective cessation tool that has driven smoking rates down to historic lows. However, there is an uptake in vape consumption among people who have never used tobacco. The number of never-smokers who vape reached over one million, rising from around 940,000 in the previous reporting year. Across Great Britain, overall e-cigarette use has outpaced cigarette smoking for the second year running. Approximately 5.4 million people aged 16 and older reported vaping, compared to 4.9 million traditional cigarette smokers across the UK (down from 5.3 million). Smoking prevalence has fallen to nearly one in ten adults, with 18-to-24-year-olds registering the steepest decline among all demographics. Those aged 45 to 54 maintained the highest proportion of current smokers at 12.4%. The ONS also documented a distinct demographic shift in vaping patterns: individuals aged 25 to 34 have now eclipsed the 16-to-24 cohort as the age group most likely to vape, with 16.4% using e-cigarettes either daily or occasionally. According to BBC, David Mais from the ONS noted that vapers are steadily ageing, explaining that this trend "may reflect existing users getting older, growing popularity among this age group, or a combination of both." The figures arrive ahead of historic tobacco control legislation set to take effect in the new year, which will progressively raise the legal smoking age by permanently banning tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to deliver a "smoke-free generation." Hazel Cheeseman, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), welcomed the continuing reduction in smoking: "Smoking has fallen enormously over recent decades, but it remains the biggest driver of preventable death in the UK. Now is the time to finish the job." Health bodies stress that while vapes serve as an effective second-line cessation aid for existing smokers, non-smokers and young people under 18 should never initiate vaping.