APS has teamed up with the leading pharmacy clinical service provider in the UK, Pharmadoctor to promote the company’s Smidge insect repellent to UK pharmacies to help protect their customers travelling abroad.
There are over 72 million trips abroad undertaken by UK travellers each year but only 41% of those travelling seek professional travel health advice before their trip, due in large part to a lack of easy access to travel clinics. To meet this unmet need, thousands of pharmacists across the UK have begun offering travel health clinics in their pharmacies.
With the support of Independent Medical Agency, PharmaDoctor, the leading pharmacy clinical service provider in the UK, trained pharmacists can now offer their customers comprehensive travel health consultations and the recommended travel jabs and malaria tablets without the need for a GP Appointment. Diseases transmitted via bites from infected mosquitoes and ticks are common risk factors when travelling abroad, so this is why PharmaDoctor has opted to partner APS Biocontrol Ltd. and help promote their insect repellent, Smidge.
With Picaridin (active repellent agent in Smidge) endorsed by the World Health Organisation and with its effect lasting up to 8 hours, PharmaDoctor’s in-house medical team have concluded that Smidge should be considered as the first-choice insect repellent for all its partner pharmacy travel clinics.
Many traditional insect repellents on the UK market contain the repellent agent DEET which can damage some plastics including mobile phones, cameras and clothing. Smidge is DEET-free, so does not pose the same risk, whilst providing reliable, effective protection against a wide range of biting insects, including the most important mosquito disease vectors. Smidge is also safe to use for the whole family, including pregnant women.
Business development manager of PharmaDoctor, Patrick Morgan, commented “Our partner pharmacies which are already stocking Smidge have reported that their customers prefer it to DEET-based products because it is kinder to skin, is sweat and water resistant and unlike most repellents it actually has a pleasant smell.” He went on to add “Having looked into the significant benefits of Smidge, the PharmaDoctor medical team now recommend this Picaridin-based repellent as first choice for travellers ahead of DEET-based products. We hope that our network of over a thousand pharmacy travel clinics will take on board PharmaDoctor’s recommendation to offer their customers Smidge; helping to protect their customers against insect-borne diseases in a more skin-friendly way.”
Director of APS Biocontrol, Dr Alison Blackwell, explains “the Smidge brand is delighted to partner with PharmaDoctor, the leading provider of pharmacy clinical services in the UK. With their nationwide network of partner pharmacies offering a wide range of clinical services including travel health services, we are confident that this collaboration and their medical endorsement represents a great opportunity to establish Smidge as the number one insect repellent in community pharmacies. The product is already established as a firm-favourite for the outdoor industry and we are looking forward to the new opportunities brought through this collaboration”