Uniphar has agreed a deal to buy the wholesale and pre-wholesale businesses of Cahill May Roberts, part of Celesio.
Uniphar, which is an Irish-owned distributor and wholesaler to the pharmacy, healthcare and animal health sectors, said the deal is worth about €50m.
The Doc Morris retail pharmacy chain is not part of the transaction.
Subject to the approval of the Competition Authority, it is expected that this deal will be completed in first quarter of 2013.
''We are pleased about the potential that this deal offers. As both an Irish-owned and pharmacist-owned business, it is very important to us to be able to sustain our business and our cooperative ethos'', commented Ger Rabbette, chief executive of Uniphar.
''It has become increasingly clear that the Irish market cannot sustain three full service wholesalers. This transaction will provide Uniphar with sufficient scale to enable us to better withstand the challenges of the market, including the patent cliff, HSE price reductions and the impending reference-pricing legislation,'' he added.
