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American drugstore giant Walgreens are set to take over Britain's popular pharmaceutical retailer Boots, in an attempt to create the first global pharmacy. Walgreens will pay a staggering 4.3 billion pounds for a 45 percent stake in Boots, which employs over 75,000 people in the UK, and plans to buy the company by 2015, creating the first global pharmacy business. "Our mission is to be America' s first choice for health and daily living, helping our customers to live well, stay well and get well," the Daily Mail quoted Walgreens CEO, Gregory Wasson, as saying. "We are bringing together the strengths and expertise of each company to create a worldwide healthcare platform for the future that can provide innovative ways to address global health and wellness challenges," he added. Although, there are fears that the American company will shift control of the merged business to the US, effectively killing off a British high street icon, but Italian executive chairman, Stefano Pessina, who co-owns Boots with an American-based private equity business, insisted it would survive the merger. "How could I do a deal to kill Boots? I have done a deal to make Boots more visible, more international, to create a lot of new markets for Boots and for the manufacturing facility at Nottingham," he said. The trans-Atlantic deal is expected to bring together more than 170,000 pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hospitals in 21 countries.

US giant Walgreens set to take over Boots to create first global pharmacy