The role of distributors in healthcare

$33-53 billion annual savings

Pharmaceutical distributors save the supply chain $33-53 billion per year in healthcare costs.

Advancing connections across healthcare

distributors connect more than

1,300

manufacturers

to

180,000+

dispensing partners

92%

of pharmaceutical sales move through distributors

Read more in the latest industry report from HDA

As a pharmaceutical distributor, we efficiently supply hundreds of thousands of sites of care with life-saving medications every day–impacting the health and wellness of millions of people. Our role in healthcare creates value beyond logistics alone.

Enable Financial Stability

Distributors pay manufacturers up front for products and take on financial ownership and significant risk of collecting payment from provider customers. This allows manufacturers to invest in innovation and other core functions. We also help providers cover the cost of products between dispensing and reimbursement as they manage tight cash flow in an environment where reimbursement is constantly in flux.

Facilitate Business Intelligence

We provide essential, aggregated data on products and share insights from helping manufacturers bring hundreds of live-saving therapies to market annually. Community providers nationwide rely on us for insights to help them navigate change, optimize business performance, implement the latest technology, amplify their value in the community, and most importantly, find more time to focus on what matters most–their patients.

Protect the Supply Chain

Distributors protect the healthcare supply chain against fraudulent activities that could harm patients. We implement the latest industry-wide solutions and technology to provide vigilant validation. We invest in advanced technology for our distribution centers, providing each location with state-of-the-art equipment to keep our products secure and our associates safe.

The ability to get pharmaceuticals to the right place at the right time is predicated on the distributor taking on financial risk, which ultimately benefits manufacturers, healthcare providers, and patients in meaningful ways.

Robert mauch, executive vice president and group president, amerisourcebergen

What would happen in a world without distributors?

See the rise in cost and complexity

The High Cost of Access: Fact or Fiction?

As drug prices reach unheard-of highs, more and more misconceptions about the role of the drug distributor are shedding light on companies that are actually essential to healthcare delivery.

A Day in the Life of a Distributor

Getting critical healthcare products to the patients who need them is all in a day’s work for AmerisourceBergen.