Combining mail Rx and research goals, Medco breaks ground for new pharmacy

WHITESTOWN, Ind. Medco Health Solutions broke ground Tuesday on a $140 million, highly automated mail-order pharmacy in central Indiana. The pharmacy benefit management giant also revealed plans to establish what company officials predicted would be a “world-class” research center for personalized medicine within the pharmacy.

The massive new pharmacy, which will cover an area equivalent to six-and-a-half football fields, will be open early in 2009, according to Medco. When it reaches peak capacity in 2012, it will be able to dispense 1 million prescriptions a week, the company predicted.

What sets the new facility apart, however, will be its focus on research, Medco president and chief operating officer Kenneth Klepper said at the groundbreaking. The center will be set up to foster collaborations between Medco, universities and the area’s colleges of pharmacy “to investigate how to deliver more precise pharmacy care through innovations in personalized medicine,” the company reported.

Medco officials have dubbed that portion of the new pharmacy the Personalized Medicine Research Center, and said it would provide a “unique” setting for leading academicians and Medco to evaluate ways to translate the latest science into improved pharmacy care.

“The research center’s objective is to study … clinical drug data, genetic testing and medical claims data in ways that will lead to improved patient safety and clinical outcomes that will also help drive down overall health care costs,” Medco stated.

“The new automated pharmacy and this research center will be an integral part of making the region a hub for life sciences, including services, technologies and diagnostics,” Klepper explained. “The proximity to leading colleges and universities, a great transportation infrastructure and business-friendly officials made this site a logical place for Medco to build this pharmacy and research center.”