Costco to open second central fill in California

BELLEVUE, Wash. Costco plans to open a second central fill center this year in the city of Corona, Calif. that will help service Internet orders and dozens of pharmacies in Southern California.

Costco senior VP of pharmacy Charles Burnett told Drug Store News about the plan at the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Bellevue, Wash., on Jan. 29. “We’re going to be working with AmerisourceBergen and we hope to have it up and running by September,” said Burnett.

He said the fill center would fill prescriptions for about 40 warehouses in Southern California and as far away as Las Vegas. Corona is located east of Los Angeles in Riverside County. Work on the building is scheduled to start in February.

Costco currently operates a central fill in Everett, WA with McKesson Corp. that opened 2006. For its second center, Burnett said Costco is working with AmerisourceBergen to try something different. “There are a lot of different systems out there,” said Burnett. “And we’ve heard great things about this one (AmerisourceBergen’s) so we’d like to give it a try.”

Burnett said working with a different company would also give Costco a point of comparison for future expansion. He said Costco plans to open “at least two more” fill centers and could open a third as early as next year.

Costco’s first fill center opened in 2006 and currently fills prescriptions for online orders, its PBM and for more than 40 warehouses in the Pacific Northwest.