Alliance Boots announced today that trading and its integration were both going to plan.
The firm, created from the merger of chemist chain Boots and drugs wholesaler Alliance Unichem in July, also said it had won a contract with Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, to be its sole UK distributor of prescription medicines.
The firm said its UK retail business had maintained good sales growth since its previous trading update, when it said like-for-like sales at the Boots the Chemist chain rose 3 per cent in the three months to June 30th.
It did not provide an updated sales figure.
Alliance Boots, which has cut prices and revamped stores to fight stiff competition from supermarkets, said its chemists were benefiting from increased membership of the Boots Health Club, as well as strong sales of cosmetics and fragrances.
In July, the firm trimmed its forecast for 2006 wholesale market growth to 2 per cent from 2.5 per cent as governments look to bear down on rising healthcare costs.