The big 3 drug distributors
https://www.drugchannels.net/2019/10/the-big-three-wholesalers-revenues-and.html
We have looked closely at the separate pharma companies, but this is a branch of the pharma cogwheel that is often overlooked. Pharma companies do not distribute their own meds. They own them and manufacture them, but they don’t appear on pharmacy shelves directly from the pharma manufacturer. That requires a middle man known as the drug distribution company.
There are “the big 3” pharma wholesalers in the United States. Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. Pharma factories make the drug, they “sell” them to the distributors, who then supply pharmacies with all the drugs.
These middlemen operate a multi billion dollar industry. Per the article linked above,
That is a massive amount of money. It was predicted by the early 2020’s, the revenue of the DISTRIBUTORS would outpace what pharma-companies make yearly in revenue.
The monopoly that the distributors have is massive. They have contracts with Walgreens, CVS, Express Scripts and that controls what price you pay for what drugs, as well as what manufacturers are available at those pharmacies. But it does not stop there. Cardinal and McKesson are also in the hospital business. Every imaginable item you can think of in a hospital from IV tubing to poop wipes to IV bags to bandaids to Ibuprofen……Cardinal and McKesson distribute it. They buy it for cheap, mark it up, and supply hospitals and pharmacies with their product.
The reasons why healthcare is so expensive goes beyond just the big pHARMa companies. The distributors are making BILLIONS of dollars off you, insurance companies, and pharma companies.
Then at their local trade show, they rent out 3 blocks of the most expensive restaurants and bars and give their customers passes to eat and drink all they want for free! Because that helps the patient. Companies in healthcare or clinical research are supposed to put shareholder wealth behind patient QOL. That used to be the case, many decades ago. Sadly, it is not anymore. Our government has failed every step of the way in almost every industry, allowing monopoly power to run rampant and then taking kickbacks. Think about it, Drugs, distribution, media, technology ... the list goes on and on where giant, powerful corporations, dominate the market, wipe out any competition so they can charge what they want and leave the consumer holding the bag. I would say let's put in an entirely new group of political "leaders" that can break up these awful companies, but they own everything, including the elections. When the 5% dominate the 95% it can only end one way ... war.
I never really thought about the distributors. Thanks for the interesting article.