SysteMed Will Expand Its Mail-Order Pharmacy : Health care: ‘Our business is growing pretty rapidly,’ vice president says of move to larger building in Laguna Hills.
SysteMed Inc., once a perennial money loser, said Tuesday that, because of healthy sales in the past two years, it will move its mail-order pharmacy operation across town to a larger building.
“Our business is growing pretty rapidly,” said Judith Woodward Archbold, SysteMed vice president and general counsel. “We need the extra space.”
For the record:
12:00 a.m. May 21, 1992 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday May 21, 1992 Orange County Edition Business Part D Page 2 Column 3 Financial Desk 3 inches; 72 words Type of Material: Correction
SysteMed Inc.--The Laguna Hills company, which had a sales increase of 62% in the past two years, said it will relocate the mail distribution operation of its chief subsidiary, America’s Pharmacy Inc., to a larger building in Des Moines, Iowa, where the mail-order business is based. A headline accompanying a Wednesday article on the move stated incorrectly that the relocation would be to Laguna Hills. Also, SysteMed continues to make the drug Isopinosine in Ireland, but does not sell it in the United States.
SysteMed’s chief subsidiary, America’s Pharmacy Inc., has posted sales growth of 62% for each of the past two years. The new facility will enable the company to quadruple the number of prescriptions it fills, from 1 million to 4 million annually, Archbold said.
The move will be completed in the third quarter.
Archbold said that SysteMed has had a dramatic turnaround since it abandoned manufacture of the drug Isoprinosine, used to treat viral infections, and began focusing on becoming a health care services firm specializing in prescription drug benefit packages.
The mail-order drug prescription service offers discounts of as much as 40% for companies and individuals. Mail-order prescriptions account for more than 90% of sales.
In connection with employer health plans, Iowa-based America’s Pharmacy Inc. provides prescription drug services by mail to health insurance companies, health maintenance organizations, employers and retirees.
The company is also near completion of a buyout of INSURx, a Cleveland-based company that designs and manages prescription drug programs for employers and insurers.
That acquisition, Archbold said, will allow the company “to provide clients a
more integrated full-service management program.”
Last year, the company reported net income of $1.4 million, the first annual profit in its 20-year history. That compared to a $5.2-million loss for 1990. Losses were attributed largely to bookkeeping adjustments and settlement of a 7-year-old class action suit.
The steady climb in profits has continued into this year. For the first quarter, profit was $653,000 on revenue of $27.1 million, up 122% from profits of $294,000, on revenue of $20.4 million, for the same period in 1991.
In over-the-counter trading Tuesday, SysteMed stock closed at $6 a share, down 12 cents.
