AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group revenues up 8%; key growth driver

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — AmerisourceBergen on Thursday reported that in its fiscal-year third quarter ended June 30, diluted earnings per share were 71 cents, an 8% increase over the prior-year quarter.



AmerisourceBergen's Specialty Group had another strong quarter with revenues up 8%, driven by another particularly strong performance in third-party logistics and in the company's vaccine and physician distribution business. Specialty Group represents significant opportunity for the wholesaler, Steven Collis, AmerisourceBergen president and CEO, told analysts.



"There's a lot of opportunities to collaborate in those areas including with our Good Neighbor Pharmacy network and there's an opportunity to do potentially more specialty in the community," he said. "We afford a lot of AmerisourceBergen customers that are interested in this area an opportunity to gain from our expertise, including in the policy area and the manufacturer relations area."



Within AmerisourceBergen's specialty division, oncology is the core competency but the wholesaler is fast expanding into other specialty areas. "We have expanded [AmerisourceBergen's oncology] capabilities to become an instrumental part of the commercialization strategy for any infusible product launched into the physician marketplace," Collis said.



AmerisouceBergen's recent acquisition of World Courier is playing a key role within specialty. "The acquisition of World Courier has given us not only a premium quality clinical trial logistics services provider, but also an international framework upon which to further capitalize on our strengths by driving our specialty logistics, consulting, commercialization and reimbursement services into other geographic markets," Collis said.



AmerisourceBergen's overall revenue in the quarter was $19.8 billion, down 1.9%. The company also narrowed the range of its expectations for the full fiscal year 2012 diluted earnings per share to $2.80 to $2.84 from its previous range of $2.74 to $2.84.



In third quarter 2012, Pharmaceutical Distribution revenues were $19.4 billion, a decrease of 3%, compared with the same quarter in the prior year. ABDC revenues declined 5%, due primarily to a decline in the volume of sales to the wholesaler's largest customer, the anniversary of a significant customer win during last year’s third quarter and the previously announced loss of a large retail customer.