PHARMACIST Raji Amlani fears her chemist will close after a court ruling left her unable to compete with supermarkets.

Mrs Amlani, owner of Marlow Bottom Pharmacy, has warned that she is facing the loss of her business after 13 years, leaving villagers without a chemist.

She spoke out after the High Court backed an Office of Fair Trading case against drug companies, ending the Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) system.

The system had allowed manufacturers to fix the price of many over-the-counter medicines.

Prices of drugs, such as headache pills and cough remedies, were cut by as much as half by supermarkets as soon as the ruling was made.

Mrs Amlani said she was afraid she would not be able to compete with cheaper drugs on sale at supermarkets.

She said: "It is disastrous for us. Already people have come in and said 'Are you going to start reducing your prices?'

"I enjoy being in Marlow Bottom and I would hate to have to go. But we are only three miles from Asda and that has a pharmacy there. I cannot even sell my business as a going concern."

She added she would have to rely on trade for prescription-only medicines.

Mike Williams, a member of Marlow Bottom Residents Association, said it would be a great loss to the community if the pharmacist was forced to shut.

He said: "There is a village spirit and she is part of that. She would be very much missed."

But Phil Evans, principal policy adviser at the Consumer Association, who supported the case said that provision of pharmacies in rural areas would not be greatly affected. He said: "The pharmacies tend to be in market towns. There is very poor pharmacy provision in the rural areas."

Owner of High Wycombe and Penn chemists Khal Khaliq said: "It is inevitable that some pharmacies will close and the ones that will suffer will be the ones in poor and rural areas."

He added research into the effect of the abolition of RPM revealed that 25 per cent of pharmacies may close and rural chemists will be hit hardest.