Walgreens Boots Alliance now has a 40% stake in Sinopharm Holding Guoda Drugstores Co. Ltd., which has a franchise of retail pharmacies across China.
The $416 million investment in Sinopharm Guoda will help provided a needed boost to Walgreens international sales. In Walgreens fiscal third quarter, retail international pharmacy sales were up 6.6% to $3 billion thanks to favorable currency exchange rates. Otherwise, retail pharmacy international sales were down 2.1%.