AmerisourceBergen 2014 Annual Report Download - page 6

driver of value for both our manufacturer
and provider customers. The expertise
we bring to bear in the regulatory,
compliance, and policy area along with
our experience in developing patient
adherence, reimbursement, and assistance
programs is a clear differentiator. With
the management of pharmaceutical
spend becoming increasingly important
as payors strive to contain healthcare
costs, demonstrating the value of
pharmaceutical therapies is vital,
not just for the most sophisticated
or newest products, but for virtually
any prescription product.
In order to more effectively
manage activities on a global scale,
we have launched AmerisourceBergen
Global Manufacturer Services, GmbH,
in Bern, Switzerland. Also known as
AmerisourceBergen Switzerland, this
new entity represents an important
step to support global manufacturer
relations and our commercialization
strategies. Peyton Howell, our
President of Global Sourcing and
Manufacturer Services, has moved
to Bern and she and her team are
developing and implementing the
next generation of commercialization
services for healthcare manufacturers.
It is no coincidence that
AmerisourceBergen Switzerland is
located in Bern, which is also where the
Walgreens Boots Alliance Development
JV is located, as being in close
proximity facilitates collaboration
and communication.
With the dramatic changes in the
pharmaceutical manufacturer landscape,
AmerisourceBergen Switzerland is
positioned to function as an intermediary
for all types of pharmaceutical and
healthcare manufacturers fostering
strategic relationships and focusing
on specific new value-added activities.
This new business will provide data
analytics and market intelligence to
assist manufacturers with their supply
chain effectiveness and will serve as
a platform to manage and grow PRxO
Generics, our proprietary generics
formulary and other global generic
programs. AmerisourceBergen
Switzerland represents a critical
step in the process of expanding our
international presence and the services
we offer our partners.
Our unique knowledge base
combined with the immense scale of
our distribution businesses and our
increasingly global reach make us the
ideal partner for those who don’t just
want to tackle current challenges
but see greater opportunities on the
horizon. One of the most gratifying
things about the performance we had
in fiscal 2014 is that we meaningfully
expanded our ability to shape
healthcare delivery and to positively
impact the communities we serve. We
have the means not only to continue
to make important investments in our
business but also to launch and fund
the AmerisourceBergen Foundation.
This new foundation will primarily
support charitable, non-profit
organizations that address the needs of
the patients we serve, fund scholarships
for the deserving children of
AmerisourceBergen associates,
and support our own associates in
extraordinary times of need. We will
formally roll out the foundation over
the next few months.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2015
and beyond, we are well-positioned
to continue to deliver on our long-term
goals. We aim to grow revenues with
the market, grow adjusted earnings per
share in the mid-teens, earn a return
on invested capital that exceeds our
weighted average cost of capital,
generate free cash flow that exceeds net
income, and return a minimum of 30%
of our free cash flow to shareholders.
We will continue to invest in our
infrastructure to support the growth
potential in our business and ensure
a secure supply chain, and we will look
for external opportunities to grow our
business and enhance the services we
provide to manufacturers and providers.
Our company has an excellent track
record of meeting or exceeding those
objectives, and we continue to strive
to be excellent stewards of capital,
redeploying it wisely to both grow our
business and enhance shareholder
returns. We remain keenly focused
on the pharmaceutical services space
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