The PDA was delighted to receive the award on 11 September 2025 at a gathering in Central London to celebrate the best of community pharmacy. PDA Chairman, Mark Koziol was presented with the award by celebrity presenter and British criminal barrister, “judge” Rob Rinder MBE and Peter Kelly from the Healthcare Innovation of the Year category sponsor, Sandoz.
Pictured L-R: Peter Kelly, Mark Koziol, Rob Rinder MBE
On introducing the award, Rob said that the campaign, which was “now endorsed across our shared world”, was “a truly life-changing humanitarian pharmacy movement.”
The ‘Medicines To’ initiative has been developed by pharmacists, and although it began with the PDA in the UK, it is now supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP – a global pharmacy organisation with more than 150 countries in membership). The campaign is now being developed in more than 15 countries across 4 continents, and momentum is continuing to build.
The campaign uses posters to appeal to members of the public. They are asked not to send donations of medicines in boxes but to give money for medicines instead via the ‘Medicines To’ campaign, which supports pharmacists in taking care of the acute medicines needs of those in humanitarian crisis zones efficiently and effectively.
Small donations made by the public in several countries can build quickly, and when pooled, can generate substantial funds. When the campaign was launched in Europe to provide medicines to Ukraine, more than four million euros was raised.
The ‘Medicines To’ campaign is now part of a worldwide network of participating national pharmacy organisations. A Medicines to Gaza campaign has been launched in 2025. More information can be found here.
After receiving the award, Mark Koziol, PDA Chairman said, “Of course we are delighted to receive this award in recognition of the ‘Medicines To’ initiative. The aim of the campaign is for pharmacists to support access to medicines for patients when a crisis occurs. We are grateful that this work has been acknowledged by the esteemed judges of this award and for the opportunity to raise awareness. We are also proud that, as part of our international work, this initiative has now been officially adopted by national pharmacy leaders in the six regions of the world at a reception during the FIP annual congress in Copenhagen recently.
We are committed to ensuring that pharmacists are seen as part of the solution where medicines are needed, and this award helps us to tell the story to a wider audience and to support more people in need.”
The PDA was also proud to sponsor the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award. Lourette Latif Philips, President of the National Association of Women Pharmacists (NAWP), one of the PDA’s equality networks presented the award to the winner, locum pharmacist, Som Thapa.
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Learn more
- PDA launches the Medicines to Gaza Campaign
- Medicines to Ukraine – A personal reflection on the recent visit to Ukraine by PDA Chairman Mark Koziol
- Medicines to Gaza
- PDA EDI Networks
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