Bitter pill for Woolies’ pharma ally; Andrew Thorburn quits controversial church

Andrew Thorburn has stepped down from his church and is quitting his corporate engagements. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Woolworths boss Brad Banducci has long harboured an interest in breaking into the lucrative pharmacy sector, having just this year made a bid for the operator of the Priceline chain, Australian Pharmaceutical Industries – but losing to Wesfarmers.

Banducci finally managed an entry of sorts with a deal to team up with SuperPharmacy, an independent chain of chemists run by Warren Turner.

Those stores will take on the Woolworths HealthyLife brand – but remain operated by Turner, a pharmacist. HealthyLife boss Ananth Sarathy told the media on Friday that Woolworths had found someone with a “reputation for reliability and a good reputation with customers”.

Turner’s reputation is not as sterling, however, as those comments suggest. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) has slapped a number of conditions on his registration, including a direction that he not be the pharmacist in charge. He is also “not to supply, manufacture or dispense any ‘drug of addiction’ including derivatives or compounded medication” and “not to compound any pharmaceutical product/s for human and/or veterinary use”.

Turner has these conditions as he fights allegations about his professional conduct. He has not been found to have breached any rules, and may well find those restrictions removed next year.

Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci.

Woolworths declined to comment, although clearly Banducci is willing to take the risk.

Documents about the issue – seen by Margin Call – show that Ahpra imposed the restrictions after an inquiry by the NSW Pharmaceutical Regulatory Unit which found there were “extensive major contraventions” of poisons and therapeutic goods regulations at pharmacies run by Turner, including the “dispensing of medicines based on invalid or non-existent prescriptions”. It also found the pharmacies were compounding “where there appears to be little or no clinical and/or pharmaceutical evidence to support the safety, efficacy, and rationality of extemporaneous formulations” and “where an appropriate commercial product appears to be available”.

“The PRU also notes that some analysis was unable to be conducted because records were also inaccurate or incomplete and some prescriptions were either unable to be located or possibly did not exist,” the Ahpra document reads. “Mr Turner, on the basis of legal advice, declined an opportunity to discuss the issues identified above with the PRU.”

Meanwhile, SuperPharmacy has been a partner of Woolworths since 2021 via the Everyday Rewards program and as a third-party merchant on HealthyLife since 2022.

Thorburn quits church

Former National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn is calling it quits from the church at the centre of his abrupt exit from Essendon, where he was to be chair.

As was reported at the time, Mr Thorburn resigned from the AFL club one day after he was appointed to the position, after it emerged the City on a Hill church had controversial views on homosexuality and abortion.

Essendon president Dave Barham said the club acted swiftly to review revelations that the City on a Hill church posted a 2013 sermon to its website that said acting on same-sex ­attraction was “a sin” and another ­likening abortion to concentration camps.

Barham and the Essendon board told Thorburn he had to pick between the club and the church, where is also chairman. For what it is worth, Thorburn says he does not hold the same views as the pastor who had written the sermon. Thorburn, however, chose City on a Hill over Essendon.

Andrew Thorburn at Essendon Football Club a day before he was removed as chairman.

Now he’s given the church up too. In fact, he is quitting all his other corporate engagements, including For Purpose Investment Partners, which is run by Michael Traill, formerly of Macquarie and a director at Sunsuper and MH Carnegie & Co. Thorburn was an executive director there. He’ll also exit Sentient Investments, where he is chairman and where the board includes former PwC chief executive Luke Sayers.

A spokesman for Thorburn told Margin Call that the businessman would “be stepping down from all his formal responsibilities, effective February 2023. He will take a year off to spend time with family, and to rest and reflect.”

Heap exits CBA role

Margin Call on Friday reported that Perpetual did not appear particularly concerned that Ben Heap, the ex-UBS Asset Management boss, was being pursued over a series of alleged money laundering failures by the corporate regulator.

Heap said he would leave the Star Entertainment board after ASIC filed in the Federal Court, but remains a proposed director of Perpetual after its merger with Pendal.

The Commonwealth Bank, however, has moved on the issue. Heap resigned from his role at its x15 venture arm earlier this week.

INSIDE MARGIN CALL

Thorburn quits controversial church role