How big do you think AmerisourceBergen Corporation is?

Many indices have shown that AmerisourceBergen is bigger than many think. Apart from its billions of dollars worth of revenue, AmerisourceBergen has paid for and absorbed companies worth billions of dollars. Many companies love buying companies worth millions of dollars but AmerisourceBergen has a huge appetite for acquiring companies worth billions of dollars in valuation.

AmerisourceBergen Corporation is an American drug wholesale organization that was founded by the merger of Bergen Brunswig and Amerisource in the year 2001. The company distributes drugs and provides consultancy related to medical business operations and patient services. The company also distributes over-the-counter (OTC) health products, generic pharmaceuticals, home healthcare supplies, outsourced compound sterile preparations and related services. AmerisourceBergen takes care of numerous health care providers in the US and selected global markets, comprising independent and chain retail pharmacies, acute care hospitals, medical clinics, mail order pharmacies, medical and dialysis clinics, physician practices, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, vet clinics and other customers.

The company’s headquarters is located in Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, United States. AmerisourceBergen boasts an employee strength of 42000 employees and a revenue of 213 billion dollars as of 2021. The company was ranked 10th on the Fortune 500 list for 2020. AmerisourceBergen was the largest company in Pennsylvania by revenue, in the year 2012. AmerisourceBergen was established in 2001 as a result of a merger of the two companies AmeriSource Health Corporation and Bergen Brunswig Corporation.

David Yost, the CEO of Ameri Source prior to the merger, remained in the position even after the combination of the two companies. The company’s mission is to create healthier futures. AmerisourceBergen has a total of 26 pharmaceutical distribution centres in the United States, 9 distribution centres in Canada, 4 speciality distribution centres in the US and more than a million square feet of production capacity in the US and UK. With the integration of World Courier, the largest medical logistics company at a worldwide level, more than 150 offices were added to the company around the globe. AmerisourceBergen operates its drug distribution business under four primary units namely: AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation (ABDC), AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group (ABSG), AmerisourceBergen Consulting Services (ABCS) and World Courier Inc.

AmerisourceBergen has a business affiliation with Good Neighbor Pharmacy, an American retailers’ cooperative network of over 3400 independently owned and operated pharmacies.

In October of 2007, the company acquired Bellco Health for one hundred and ninety million dollars.

In the year 2011, the company purchased IntrinsiQ for 35 million dollars and Premier Source for an amount the company did not disclose.

In July of the same year, Steven Collis became the CEO of the company, replacing Yost. In the month of March the next year, AmerisourceBergen agreed to purchase World Courier Group Inc., a transport and logistic company that provides its services to the biopharmaceutical industry for a sum of 520 million dollars.

In January 2015, AmerisourceBergen acquired MWI Veterinary for 2.5 billion dollars.

The following year, AmerisourceBergen purchased St. Francis Group for an unreported amount.

 By October of that year, AmerisourceBergen agreed to buy PharMEDium, a compounding drug company for a sum of 2.58 billion dollars.

The company went further to acquire H.D Smith which was the largest privately held national pharmaceutical wholesale company in the United States for eight hundred and fifteen million dollars.

In march 2016, Walgreen Boots Alliance Incorporation acquired 22.7 million shares of AmerisourceBergen stock worth about 1.17 billion dollars, thereby having 15% control in the company, from which they sold 6 million units of the stock in 2022.

 In 2018, AmerisourceBergen came into an agreement to pay 625 million dollars to settle a civil fraud testament made against them as a result of its repackaging and sales of unapproved drugs, adulterated drugs and providing kickbacks to physicians.

In the year 2019, the company announced its earnings to be a sum of 1.11 billion dollars with annual revenue of 179.58 billion dollars. The company’s shares also traded at a price of over 88 dollars per share and its market cap became valued at 19.2 billion dollars in the U.S by September of the same year.

In June 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the U.S announced an unusual agreement for the distribution of the first coronavirus drug Remdesivir. AmerisourceBergen was given the responsibility of allocating shipments of the drug to American hospitals through the end of September 2020. During the time frame, patients would be allocated with over 90% of Remdesivir output of more than 500000 treatment courses.

On June 2nd, 2021, the company purchased Alliance Health Care from Walgreens Boots Alliance for an approximate sum of 6.5 billion dollars which was split into 2 million shares and 6.275 billion dollars in cash.

AmerisourceBergen has also had its fair share of problems. First, it was the state of Michigan sued the company and three other opioid distribution companies as drug dealers, for their roles in the state’s opioid overdose disasters in December 2019. The lawsuit was filed under the Michigan Drug Dealer liability act.

 Secondly, Ohio state also sued AmerisourceBergen. The company alongside three other distributors came to an agreement to pay the sum of 260 million dollars to two Ohio counties.

Thirdly, AmerisourceBergen was sued by the West Virginia government for its contribution to the resulting opioid Epidemic, when the company decided to ship above the law-regulated amount of pain medication, into the state.

Oklahoma attorney general, Mike Hunter, also sued AmerisourceBergen in Bryan County District Court, Oklahoma. The lawsuit stated that the company’s distribution fuelled the opioid disaster in the state. Two companies were sued alongside AmerisourceBergen. The lawsuit reported that the opioid supplied by the three companies was so much that every adult resident in the state could have 144 Hydrocone tablets each.

As of January 2022, AmerisourceBergen, alongside three other sued distribution companies, agreed to pay a combined sum of 26 billion dollars to settle all but 5 states suing them.

The company’s stock price went down after the company offered 10 billion dollars to settle its portion of the national opioid lawsuit, along with other distributors.

It was estimated that if all the state charges got to court the companies would have paid up to 95 billion dollars for damages.

With the above,  it is obvious that AmerisourceBergen is a gigantic company.