And then there were three. Sanofi-Aventis has announced plans for a new exclusive distribution arrangement for its meds in the UK. Beginning Nov. 1, the drugmaker will use just three wholesalers - AAH, Phoenix and UniChem - the same type of move Pfizer began earlier this year and AstraZeneca plans to mimic as well. Until now, Sanofi used a number of big and small wholesalers.

The new arrangement will allow Sanofi to “maintain the service levels that our customers experience today, while improving supply chain efficiency in the delivery of our medicines to patients,” Mike Isles, the drugmaker’s UK supply chain director, tells PharmaTimes. Pfizer, for instance, justified its own switch, in part, as a means of minimizing counterfeits.

But wholesalers and some doctors say such moves stifle competition and is really a bid to fight parallel trade, a legal practice in Europe in which meds can be imported for resale into the UK. As a result, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading is conducting an investigation.

The British Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers warns these “new and varied distribution arrangements” could damage the pharmaceutical supply chain and the ability of patients to receive meds quickly and easily, with the potential for adding hidden costs to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).