Diplomat Pharmacy Q1 revenue up 34% and the future looks more promising

FLINT, Mich. — Diplomat Pharmacy reported $625 million in first-quarter revenue, representing an increase of 34% for the period ended March 31. Total prescriptions dispensed reached 194,000, an increase of 6%. 

 

“Diplomat continued to benefit from strong specialty pharmacy industry trends and further gained market share," said Phil Hagerman, Diplomat chairman and CEO. "Our role as the largest independent specialty pharmacy in the nation, combined with our dedication to our high touch patient model allowed us to win access to several limited distribution drug panels in the quarter," he said. "With the successful completion of the BioRx acquisition on April 1, 2015, we have established a platform on which we will drive our specialty infusion business. 2015 is off to a great start and I’m enthusiastic about our outlook for the remainder of the year.”

 

Overall, the future is extremely promising for Diplomat and the specialty pharmacy industry, Hagerman told analysts. "I just returned from the Armada conference, which is the Super Bowl of specialty pharmacy, and ... the themes are overwhelmingly bullish for both the specialty pharmacy industry and for Diplomat," he said. "These themes include the drug pipeline, [which] remains robust with over 1,800 specialty drugs in the developing pipeline. [And] oncology continues to be a major focus with almost 50% of the drug pipeline in oncology [while] hepatitis C continues to be a growing focus," he said. In addition to promising developments across oncology and hepatitis C, non-adherence is still a significant and costly concern creating new opportunities for Diplomat's high touch patient centric care model, Hagerman added. "Payors have an increasing focus on site of care management strategies [and] that will move patient care to the home setting, increasing the specialty infusion opportunities."

 

Dipolmat attributed the quarter's increase to approximately $58 million of revenue from drugs that were new to the market or newly dispensed by Diplomat and approximately $24 million from acquisitions. The remaining increase is primarily attributable to a richer mix of high-priced drugs, the impact of manufacturer price increases and payor mix changes.