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The founder and former CEO of an online pharmacy business has been found in contempt of a court after breaching an order that barred him from working with a competing organisation.

The court order, which was granted by Scottish Supreme Court judge Lord Richardson in January 2025, was sought by Phlo in order to enforce a shareholders’ agreement after it learned in November 2024 that ex-CEO Nadeem Sarwar had bought care home dispenser Remedi Solutions out of administration.

The shareholders’ agreement barred directors from working for competing businesses while engaged with Phlo and for up to two years after ceasing to be a director there. The dispute arose in the context of a broader disagreement over whether Mr Sarwar ceased to be a director at Phlo in August 2024.

Phlo argued that as Remedi was, like itself, included on the list of NHS distance-selling pharmacies, and that its website marketed its repeat prescription services to individuals.

Mr Sarwar countered that the vast majority of Remedi’s work involved supplying care homes – a sector on which Phlo has never concentrated its efforts – and that only an estimated 0.0027 per cent of its items went to patients who had signed up as individuals, many of whom were Remedi employees.

He added that Phlo had diverted its marketing budget away from repeat NHS patients, instead focusing on its independent prescribing business stream.

He also noted that Remedi relied on the same business model as Universal Pharmacy, a company he had run for several years while acting as a director at Phlo without any concerns being raised. Mr Sarwar argued that this was because the companies “were not in competition”.

Lord Richardson acknowledged that to a large extent Remedi and Phlo served different markets, and that the care home work carried out by the former company was unlikely to cause detriment to Phlo.

However, he concluded that this was not relevant to an objective understanding of the meaning of “competing with” as stated in the shareholders’ agreement.

He found that in offering its services to ‘community patients’ across England – a regulatory requirement for all DSPs – Remedi was in fact competing with Phlo’s internet pharmacy business.

The judge accordingly found that Mr Sarwar had breached the order and was in contempt of court.

Sanctions will be discussed at a later hearing.

In late 2025, the management contract for Remedi Healthcare was novated to MedPal after the sale to Mr Sarwar foundered amid missed payments to administrators.