Alliance Unichem is to sell the 48 Moss pharmacies it runs in Asda stores to the supermarket chain for £100 million.

The deal includes the Moss pharmacies in both Asda's Brighton stores.

The Surrey-based company, which has more than 700 Moss outlets in Britain, said it had plans to buy around 85 new sites to convert to its pharmacy brand.

The plans are part of the company's continued expansion programme for the Moss chemists.

For Asda, now owned by US giant Wal-Mart, the deal will see it scoop an increased stake in the potentially lucrative healthcare market, and by next April it expects to run chemists in nearly a third of its 240 UK stores.

Asda has promised jobs to all 463 Moss employees affected by the deal and in addition, plans to recruit a further 100 pharmacists over the next 12 months.

Penny Coates, Asda's health and beauty director, said: "Our goal is simple - a dispensing pharmacy in every one of our stores.

"Feedback from customers tells us that this is the most valuable complementary service we can offer them within our stores."

The deal will also see Alliance Unichem supply healthcare products to all Asda's pharmacy stores.

Jeff Harris, Alliance Unichem chief executive, said: "Asda has for several years been trying to persuade us to let it take over these branches.

"We have had a good relationship with Asda but with Wal-Mart taking over I am not surprised it has come to an end."

The company, currently the second-largest drug distributor in Europe, is the product of a 1997 merger of Luxembourg's Alliance Sante and the UK's Unichem.

It also today announced plans to launch a new e-business division under the name pharmology.com to customers in the UK and France by the end of the year.