By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Premier Mid-America, a new 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Bowling Green, will become a hub for distributing lower-cost pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to independent hospitals, pharmacies, clinics and surgery centers.
At a Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting Thursday, Premier Pharma CEO and founder Jacob Fuchs outlined his company’s expansion plan “to bring transparency to the pharma market” through the Bowling Green-based Premier Mid-America.
According to Adrian Constance, executive vice president of Premier Pharma, the parent company buys directly from manufacturers, uses fair and transparent cost-plus pricing to lower costs, and ships straight from the point of entry to Premier Mid-America and other strategically placed distribution centers in 18 states in order to eliminate logistical inefficiencies and middleman markups.
“We also partner with the provider community to begin transforming the end-to-end pharmaceutical experience away from the current system, which is opaque and unnecessarily expensive,” Constance said.
Wood County Hospital, Progressive Healthcare and the City of Bowling Green were partners in the effort to bring the company to its 2231 Venture Drive location. Starting with four employees, the facility will be led by Amy Nusbaum, general manager; Eric, Pollex warehouse supervisor, Nick Korducki, warehouse associate, and Brian Ault, procurement analyst,
As the business grows when other independent hospitals, pharmacies, clinics and surgery centers in Ohio and surrounding states sign on with Premier Mid-America, Nusbaum said staff will be added and the building can be expanded incrementally to 30,000 square feet.
“Health care is always changing. We tend to think of it in terms of what we actually do for patients—new drugs, new techniques, new instrumentation, new buildings. The things that people can see,” said Stan Korducki, president of Wood County Hospital.
Because the complexity of the business of healthcare has changed dramatically in the last few decades and the cost of pharmaceuticals has been obscured by “an amazing set of middlemen between the manufacturer and the patient,” Korducki said the hospital is always looking for ways to be better, more cost-effective.
Progressive Healthcare’s Bob Cameron, a consultant for the hospital, met with the Premier Pharma team to discuss a new way the hospital could acquire drugs with costs that would be much more transparent. Korducki said the idea of the new business-to-business model with reduced costs for pharmaceutical and medical supplies “caught fire.”
Constance said the company’s “strong partnerships with pharmaceuticals and medical supply manufacturers enable us to provide our customers with incredible values. We aspire to become a preferred partner for healthcare providers, offering a comprehensive range of pharmaceutical and medical supplies that meet the highest quality and safety standards.”
Todd Leopold, director of pharmacy at the hospital, said they have already been able to take advantage of the partnership. “With the shortages this year that have been pretty severe, I’m very excited to have Premier Mid-American here in Bowling Green in our backyard.”
Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher said he appreciated the relationship the city has with Korducki and Wood County Hospital. “We value that relationship and we look forward to working with Premier Mid-America to build a partnership, trust and understanding. We value our relationships with our corporate partners, and we want to do anything we might be able to do to contribute to your success.”
