Alliance Healthcare, formerly Alliance UniChem, wholesales, distributes, and retails pharmaceutical, surgical, medical, and healthcare products throughout Europe. The company supplies more than 110,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hospitals from over 288 distribution centres in 11 countries. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of

AmerisourceBergen AmerisourceBergen Corporation is an American drug wholesale company that was formed by the merger of Bergen Brunswig and AmeriSource in 2001. They provide drug distribution and consulting related to medical business operations and patient se ...

, having been formerly owned by

Walgreens Boots Alliance Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. is an American-British-Swiss holding company headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois that owns the retail pharmacy chains Walgreens and Boots, as well as several pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution companies ...

until 2021.

History

Stefano Pessina Stefano Pessina (born 4 June 1941) is an Italian-Monegasque billionaire businessman; he is the executive chairman and largest single shareholder of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Early life Pessina was born in Pescara and grew up between Milan, C ...

founded Alleanza Salute Italia in 1977 under the name of Alleanza Farmaceutica, which expanded to form Alliance Santé SA with Antonin De Bono (at that time Chairman and CEO (1994-97) of Européenne de répartition pharmaceutique et d'investissements which became Alliance Santé Distribution).Stefano Pessina Biography
/ref> In November 1997, Alliance Santé SA merged with UniChem PLC to form Alliance UniChem. The combined business became one of the largest pharmaceutical distributors in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In 1998 it purchased a majority stake in the Spanish pharmaceutical wholesaler Grupo Safa. In 1999, Alliance UniChem entered into a partnership with Galenica AG of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and created the Alliance Farmacie business in Italy. Plus s.r.o. and Pragopharm s.r.o. of the Czech Republic were purchased that year, and Alliance Santè and UniChem's Portuguese subsidiaries merged to form Alliance UniChem Farmacêutica S.A. The company purchased the Dutch firms Interpharm and De Vier Vijzels in 2000. In 2001 the company entered into a strategic wholesale pharmaceutical partnership with the Turkish company Hedef Holding. In 2002, Alliance UniChem bought the Norwegian pharmaceutical wholesaler Holtung. The company entered the

FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

index that year. In 2003, Alliance UniChem bought a 40% indirect stake in the Egyptian wholesaler UCP via Hedef. The group launched the virtual pharmacy chain Alphega in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The virtual chain was introduced in Italy the following year. Alliance UniChem acquired Swiss specialist healthcare logistics and pre-wholesaler Alloga in 2005, as well as Spanish pharmaceutical wholesaler Farmacen, and the Bairds Chemist retail business in Northern Ireland. The UK retail pharmacy business was rebranded from ''Moss Pharmacy'' to ''Alliance Pharmacy''. On 3 October 2005 it was formally announced that Alliance UniChem would enter into a friendly merger with Boots Group, the UK's largest retail pharmacy chain. The merger was completed on 31 July 2006, forming Alliance Boots. Alliance UniChem was renamed

Alliance Healthcare Alliance Healthcare, formerly Alliance UniChem, wholesales, distributes, and retails pharmaceutical, surgical, medical, and healthcare products throughout Europe. The company supplies more than 110,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hos ...

in 2009, and in 2014 Alliance Boots was purchased by Walgreens, forming

. In June 2021

acquired Alliance for $6.275 billion in cash.

Key people

* Marie Evans, Managing Director * Pablo Rivas, Chief Operating Officer * Owen Cooper, Client Sales Director * Ashley Kilgas, Sales Director * Sachiv Patel, Category Director * Matt Addison, Operations Director * Jeremy Ehlers, IT Director * Mark Lincoln, Business Transformation Director * Lucie Massart, General Counsel * Natasha Wilson, HR Director * Raj Nutan, Healthcare Strategy and Services Director * Pamela Bower-Nye, Marketing and Communications Director * Chris Martin, Non-executive advisor

References

External links

* {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Retail companies established in 1997 Pharmacies Retail companies of the United Kingdom Wholesalers of the United Kingdom European medical and health organizations no:Alliance Boots sv:Alliance Unichem