AmerisourceBergen 2014 Annual Report Download - page 4

solutions and through our participation
in the Swiss procurement joint venture
with Walgreens Boots Alliance. Fiscal-
year 2014 was a transformational year
for AmerisourceBergen in which we
substantially strengthened our core
business, and we head into the coming
year with excellent momentum.
It is an exciting time to be in
pharmaceutical services. Over the last
year, our entire industry has transformed
itself in an effort to better address
the changing needs of the healthcare
landscape. Wholesalers continue to
demonstrate that the value we provide
to the channel goes well beyond the
aggregation of demand and the logistics
of getting products from one point to
another safely and securely. We help
ensure efficient pharmaceutical care
and broad access to products while
making it easier for our customers
to focus on caring for their patients.
Organic growth rates in the US
pharmaceutical market are improving,
driven by a better economic conditions,
health reform initiatives and successful
launches of new brand products. Some
of those new products have the ability
to cure previously intractable disease,
and the R&D pipeline is full of innovative
products that hold the potential to
make great strides across many disease
states. The combination of advanced
therapeutic medicine and expanding
access to healthcare drives growth
opportunities in our industry, and more
importantly, meaningfully improves
patient lives. AmerisourceBergen is
uniquely positioned to help these
products get to market as efficiently as
possible, and to support efforts to ensure
patients have access to both these complex
new medications as well as long-proven
therapies across all sites of care.
With each passing year our
individual business units become less
distinct from one another and instead
focus their efforts on collaboratively
meeting the needs of suppliers and
customers. The different perspectives
and expertise they each bring to the
table creates unique opportunities to
deliver value in a fast-changing market,
and our suppliers and customers
appreciate the ability to achieve
a comprehensive solution with
AmerisourceBergen. The strength of
our results in fiscal 2014 is no doubt a
benefit of that collaborative approach.
AmerisourceBergen Drug
Corporation (ABDC) had a very strong
year. Revenues were up 42% as we
onboarded the new Walgreens business.
Solid organic market growth driven by
an improving economy and the positive
impact of federal healthcare reform
efforts, as well as a contribution from
the sales of the very successful new
hepatitis C therapies also contributed
to ABDC’s revenue growth. Brand
pharmaceutical price inflation remains
quite strong, and price inflation on a
portion of the generic pharmaceutical
market was beneficial as well.
During the year, we brought our
new Orlando distribution center online,
launched two new state-of-the-art
customer service centers and made
substantial infrastructure improvements
to nearly every facility. I commend
our ABDC associates for the incredible
job they did in making these changes
while implementing the Walgreens
pharmaceutical distribution contract.
2
Fiscal 2014 was an
historic year for
AmerisourceBergen, and
I could not be more
proud of the way the
whole company pulled
together to deliver the
stellar financial and
operational performance
we achieved together
in fiscal 2014.