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The former chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), who stepped aside during a competition law investigation into a company that lists him as a director, is to leave the NPA board.
Nitin Sodha relinquished his post as NPA chair in June 2019, amid investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) relating to allegations of “illegal market sharing”.
Several firms were named in these investigations, including Lexon UK. Sodha owns shares and is listed as a director of both Lexon (UK) Ltd and Lexon UK Holdings Ltd by Companies House.
Both of these companies are currently under investigation by the CMA, alongside Alliance Pharma, Focus and Medreich, over allegations that the companies agreed not to compete for the supply of prochlorperazine 3mg buccal tablets, a prescription-only dissolvable anti-nausea drug, to the NHS between June 2013 and July 2018.
In a statement issued on 2 July 2019, the NPA said Sodha would be leaving the Association’s board after 12 years.
Andrew Lane, vice chair of the NPA, who has taken on the chair’s responsibilities, said that during his time as chair Sodha had argued for the expansion of clinical services within community pharmacy and pioneered a move to take NPA board meetings away from its St Albans headquarters to other parts of the country.
Sodha said: “I believe that, following a comprehensive review of strategy, the organisation is strengthened and is heading in the right direction.”
