Peak CEO Peter Cattee says parked pharmacy problems need solving
Peter Cattee, CEO of Peak, has spoken to Chemist+Druggist about the unresolved issues sitting beneath the surface of the pharmacy sector. The interview, published on 24 June 2026, covers his experience negotiating for the Company Chemists' Association and the pressures his own business faces.
What happened
C+D journalist Alex Cooke published the interview on 24 June 2026. Cattee, who leads Peak, gave a wide-ranging account of where the pharmacy sector stands after a period in which difficult questions were left unanswered.
His central point is direct: "We've parked problems, now they need solving." That framing sets the tone for the whole conversation. Rather than treating the current state of community pharmacy as a settled matter, Cattee describes a sector that has deferred decisions — on funding, on service delivery, on the viability of individual businesses — and now has to face them.
The interview also covers Cattee's role with the Company Chemists' Association, where he negotiates on behalf of larger pharmacy operators. That puts him in a position where he has to hold together the interests of contractors while also dealing with NHS England, the government, and the commercial realities of running a pharmacy business. The C+D write-up flags the tensions that come with that position, including questions about the cost of medicines like codeine and the pressures those costs place on pharmacy operators.
Why it matters
For anyone thinking about a career in community pharmacy, or already working through a pre-registration placement in that setting, interviews like this one are worth reading slowly.
Cattee is not offering a polished public-relations account of pharmacy's future. He's describing a sector in which structural problems have been acknowledged for years but not fixed. Funding shortfalls, medicine costs, the viability of contractor businesses — these aren't abstract policy questions. They show up in the day-to-day work of every pharmacy, from staffing decisions to which services a site can actually run.
The phrase "parked problems" is doing a lot of work here. In negotiation terms, parking a problem means both sides agree to move past it for now and return later. The risk is that "later" keeps getting pushed back while the underlying pressure builds. Cattee is saying that point has arrived — the parking can't go on.
For anyone working in or entering a contractor pharmacy, that matters because it signals what the next phase of pharmacy policy discussions may look like. Funding settlements, the cost base for dispensing, service commissioning — all of these are areas where the sector has been waiting for resolution. Cattee's comments suggest that patience with delay is running out.
It's also worth noting what kind of voice Cattee represents. He leads Peak, which means he has a direct commercial stake in the answers to these questions. He also sits at the negotiating table for CPE, representing contractor interests. That dual position gives his commentary a grounded quality — he's not speaking theoretically about pharmacy economics, he's living them.
The C+D interview touches on the price of codeine as one specific pressure point. That's a useful detail. Medicine procurement costs are one of the most immediate financial realities in community pharmacy, and codeine-containing products sit in a category that's subject to both clinical scrutiny and supply-chain volatility. When a pharmacy CEO flags the price of a specific medicine in an interview about business viability, it reflects a real operational concern rather than a general complaint.
GPhC exam relevance
The GPhC Common Registration Assessment tests applied knowledge, not commentary on sector politics. But the context Cattee describes connects to several areas that do appear in exam preparation.
Pharmacy law and the regulatory framework for community pharmacy sits within the assessment blueprint. Understanding why contractors operate under the NHS pharmaceutical contract, how that contract is negotiated, and what the obligations and financial structures look like — all of that sits behind the kind of pressures Cattee is describing. You don't need to know the negotiating history of CPE to pass the assessment, but you do need to understand the environment in which community pharmacy operates.
Medicine supply and procurement issues are also relevant. If medicine costs are a business pressure point, that reflects supply-chain realities that can also show up in practice — shortages, category M pricing, and the mechanics of how NHS reimbursement works for dispensed items. These are areas a registered pharmacist is expected to understand at a functional level.
More broadly, the assessment tests whether candidates can make sound professional decisions in realistic practice settings. Community pharmacy is one of those settings. Knowing that it operates under financial pressure, that services are commissioned and funded separately from dispensing, and that contractors have both regulatory and commercial obligations — that background makes the scenario-based questions in the assessment easier to reason through.
What's next
Cattee's framing suggests the next year or two will involve renewed pressure on the unresolved questions he describes. If you're in a community pharmacy placement, watch for how your site handles the gap between what it's commissioned to do and what it can practically deliver. That gap is exactly what he's talking about.
For the CPE negotiating table, the question of what a sustainable pharmacy contract looks like is unfinished business. Any progress — or further stalemate — will be covered by Chemist+Druggist and the pharmacy press.
Read the full interview to hear Cattee in his own words on the specific pressures Peak faces and what he thinks resolution would actually look like.
Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/analysis/peter-cattee-weve-parked-problems-now-they-need-solving-TUJS5ZWQIZHCZFVZ2WHIF2EQXQ/