Brand Pharmaceutical Distribution Services

With a sole focus on the pharmacy supply chain, AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation (ABDC) offers a variety of value-added distribution services that increase your success in the marketplace. We continually seek ways to reduce the costs of getting your products to market so you can focus your attention on developing innovative therapies.

Physical Distribution Services. Manufacturers rely on us to order in relative bulk quantities and distribute to pharmacies on a just-in-time basis. While in the custody of AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, products are stored properly, under security, and move in a highly-controlled manner to pharmacies.

- One of our newest methods is the Cold Chain Cooler, designed to enhance the shipping integrity of heat sensitive biological products such as vaccines and antibiotics.  These innovative coolers feature a high strength/weight ratio, outstanding shock absorbency, and excellent thermal insulation so that the quality and effectiveness of the refrigerated product will not be compromised.

Product Flow Administration. An integral part of getting your products to market is information management required to support day-to-day business. Our suppliers benefit by not having to maintain an infrastructure to process millions of customer transactions a year. Customer orders are processed, customers are invoiced, credit is managed, collections are carried out, customer deductions are processed, short/damage claims are handled and we provide customer service concerning all the products we stock and transactions we process.

Channel Management. One of the resource-saving roles AmerisourceBergen plays for our suppliers is to  qualify customers, provide new product placement, manage manufacturer short-supply situations, perform manufacturer recalls, and process and screen product returns.

- Our supply chain staff is a dedicated team of professionals who manage these functions in our distribution process and handle the day-to-day management of supplier relationships.

- AmerisourceBergen offers our New Product Placement (NPP) program, reserved for new chemical entities, technologies, and products with the potential to reach more than $100 million in their first year sales. NPP products are distributed to thousands of retail pharmacies within 48 to 72 hours after receipt in a distribution center.  This helps ensure that there is stock at the retail pharmacy when the prescription is first presented. Special dating, discounts, and a guarantee of sale are also included in this program.

Customer Service and Inventory Management. Both customers and manufacturers benefit from our ability to efficiently manage the most significant asset in the pharmaceutical supply chain: product inventory. Pharmacies stock minimal inventory of around 4,000 drugs and use us to provide just-in-time delivery of more than 30,000 pharmaceuticals. We absorb this inventory and customer demand fluctuations to provide suppliers stability, support your marketing efforts and maintain market share.

- Through our Supply Chain Master Data Solutions program, we efficiently maintain data in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) format such as on-order quantities, received inventory, on-hand quantities, aggregate sales, customer returns, product transfers, forecasted unit demand, inventory adjustments and morgue quantities:

- One of the many important functions AmerisourceBergen performs for our manufacturing partners and for our customers is the handling of saleable and non-saleable returns.
    
      Saleable Returns. AmerisourceBergen takes back thousands   of units of saleable product from our customers each year.  This is product that was either ordered in error or is no longer needed by our pharmacy customer due to patient changes.  In accordance with applicable law, customers must warrant that the saleable, returned product has been stored under manufacturer’s requirements.  The re-stocking of saleable product by ABC prevents hundreds of thousands of dollars in saleable product from being returned to, and destroyed by, manufacturers each year.

       Non-saleable Returns. Non-saleable product returns for the 23 distribution centers located in the continental United States are now centralized and managed by Med-Turn, Inc.  As a result, suppliers process fewer debit memos and benefit from the consistency of a reverse logistics team focused exclusively on getting the right product returned to the right supplier within the terms of that supplier’s return policies.  These returns from ABC inventory are identified by 053 at the front of the debit memo number.

Contracts and Chargebacks. We administer tens of thousands of our pharmacy customers’ supplier contracts, providing our manufacturers with a key capability to tailor product pricing to unique customer segments. Additionally, we act as the bank for these contract transactions, serving as the clearinghouse for funds between manufacturer and customer.