Joint Venture Announced

04/22/96

A joint venture has been formed by 15 leading U.S. pharmacy software suppliers. The new company, The American Pharmacy Alliance, is a technology partnership that will help facilitate access to products and services that are beneficial for its independent and small chain pharmacy customers. This will help community pharmacies significantly expand their value to patients and the health care delivery system and at the same time allow other members of the industry achieve their pharmaceutical care and business goals. Drug manufacturers, wholesalers, pharmacy benefits managers, managed care organizations, and others will be able to recruit and service independent and small chain pharmacies with the same efficiencies and economies as large chain, mail order, and HMO pharmacies.

"Community pharmacists are uniquely positioned to combine the power of their pharmacy computer systems, the intelligence of their patient information databases, and their face-to-face access to patients, to deliver a quality and breadth of service unavailable anywhere else. The American Pharmacy Alliance will team with other industry suppliers to help design and implement programs that will allow community pharmacies to take better advantage of these strengths in the marketplace." says Karl Steele, CEO.

Because virtually every pharmacy in the U.S. is highly automated in its prescription filling process, new initiatives generally must be integrated with these computer systems in order to be effective. Since a pharmacy could be dealing with any one of several dozen software suppliers, achieving integration on an industry-wide basis has been difficult. The APA will minimize the difficulty of coordinating development efforts with numerous software developers.

Lack of patient compliance represents an enormous cost to our health care system, and a significant danger to patients. Nearly half of all refillable prescriptions are never refilled, and industry figures indicate that 10-15% of all hospital admissions are the result of improper use of medications. One of APA's initial projects establishes a refill reminder program to help patients stay compliant in taking their medication, thereby receiving the full benefit intended. In addition, it provides an efficient means of channeling educational materials to defined groups of patients.

The member companies in this joint venture provide software to over 10,000 of the 24,000 independent pharmacies in the United States, representing the largest single body of independent pharmacies in the industry. Steele points out, "APA's purpose is not to reinvent technology, but rather to coordinate and apply existing, proven technology. This will be done by working with expert industry suppliers on product integration, and providing the efficiency of a single business and communication point through which to reach a significant portion of the country's community pharmacies. In this way, pharmacies and patients benefit from the industry's broad expertise, with the advantage of rapid implementation."

Member companies include: BSI Business Systems, ComputeRx, Core Systems, Etreby Computer Company, Condor, Health Business Systems, Interactive Systems & Management, MedE America Systems, North American PACS, PharmAssist, OmniSys, Opus Forte, QS/1 Data Systems, and Transaction Data Systems.

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"The American Pharmacy Alliance" and "PromptRx" are servicemarks of The American Pharmacy Alliance.

Updated: January 2001