As reinventions go, UDG Healthcare’s has been more or less complete. Having started life in Ireland in 1948 as United Drug, a distributor of medicines from manufacturers to retailers, three years ago it was a case of “all change”. Out went the low-margin drugs supply business; in came a new model, with UDG becoming a provider of services to the pharmaceuticals industry, ranging from writing marketing literature on new drug launches to packaging the products ready for shops.
Listed since 1989 and now a constituent of the FTSE 250, UDG Healthcare operates in 26 countries and employs more than 8,000 staff. It divides itself into two businesses: Ashfield, which accounts for about 70 per cent of the group, works with drugs companies at every