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OTC company Omega Pharma has acquired Warman-Freed pharmacy in Golders Green. The company plans to study how the local community uses the pharmacy, remodel it based on these insights and share its findings with everyone connected to community pharmacy.

The 30-strong staff will be headed up by Liam Stapleton, a member of Pharmacy Magazine's editorial advisory panel, who joins Warman-Freed as pharmacy superintendent. €I know how much of a critical role pharmacy plays in empowering patients to embrace self-care and I am delighted to be supporting Omega Pharma,€ he says.

€Crucially, this project only exists because we are hoping to get an insight into how a typical community pharmacy operates, and it is evident that Warman-Freed is an integral part of the Golders Green community.

€Our ultimate aim is for the work at Warman-Freed to help improve services supporting better health across the entire country.€

As well as gathering shopper behaviour insights, the business will also be used as a concept pharmacy, where customers and suppliers can test new lines or techniques before they are rolled out on a wider scale.

€Never before will product and service testing have been conducted in a real pharmacy environment,€ comments Neil Lister, general manager of Omega Pharma.

A lot of companies have invested in virtual reality centres where ideas and strategies are tested, he says, but by gathering insights in a real environment we feel the industry will benefit from findings that truly reflect the business reality.

The initiative isn't about Omega Pharma's commercial strategy, he adds. €This is about driving positive change for the industry as a whole so that together we can make sophisticated and evidencebased business decisions centred on the pharmacy and the patient.