Provide temperature controlled environments for
storage and transportation for sensitive drugs, for conditions such as HIV.
About Pharmaceutical Wholesaling
The British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (BAPW) is the trade association for an essential, but often overlooked, part of the medicines supply chain - wholesalers.
Pharmaceutical wholesalers supply medicines to doctors, pharmacists and hospitals, making sure that patients don’t have to go without vital drugs by making deliveries across the country, up to four times a day. As the trade association for these companies, the BAPW exists to represent their interests and to ensure that the supply chain for medicines works as well as it possibly can.
Wholesalers are a vital part of the supply chain which sees medicines delivered quickly and safely to patients:
Wholesalers act as the link between manufacturers and doctors, pharmacists and hospitals, taking delivery of medicines; storing them safely and securely until they are needed by customers; then delivering them, as required, quickly and efficiently to wherever they are needed by patients. But full-line wholesalers don’t just provide a simple supply service:
- They stock the entire range of 20,000 licensed medicines, ready for dispatch at any time
- They operate around the clock, around the year
- They provide around half of all the computer equipment used in
pharmacies;
They offer banking, merchandising and business development advice to pharmacists.
In some countries, elements of full-line pharmaceutical wholesaling are viewed as a public service and receive state subsidies, although in the UK this is not the case. Wholesalers buy most of the medicines they supply direct from manufacturers to meet the demands of the customer - the NHS. In essence, the industry carries all the risk and investment involved in distribution of medicines with no specific investment or subsidy from, or cost to, the NHS or the taxpayer.