FRISCO, Texas — Specialty pharmacy operator Assured Pharmacy is embarking on a major expansion plan.
Assured said Thursday that it aims to open two new stores in Denver and Boston this summer. The company, which specializes in providing prescription medications to sufferers of chronic pain, currently has four pharmacies: in Riverside, Calif.; Kirkland, Wash.; Gresham, Ore.; and Leawood, Kan.
"The landmark success of our Kansas store opening provides a replicable model by which we expect to double our revenues in the next two years," Robert DelVecchio, chief executive officer of Assured Pharmacy, said in a statement.
Following the model of the store opening in Kansas last year, the Denver and Boston stores will openwith the support of physician groups, Assured said. With a total cost of less than $300,000, the Kansas store was EBITDA-positive in its sixth full month of operations and has a current annualized revenue run rate of $4 million.
And last month, the Kansas location became the first of Assured’s stores to serve 1,500 patients in a month, in only its 16th full month of operation, largely because of an expansion in target indications beyond chronic pain to include all chronic controlled medications, according to the company.
"In addition to the new stores currently under construction, we have identified and premarketed four additional locations and have the infrastructure to support a minimum of 12 stores, with minimal increase in our corporate cost structure," DelVecchio stated.
Plans call for Assured to open three new pharmacies per year, up to a total of 12, according to the company’s annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"This aggressive store-opening campaign, coupled with our strategy to accelerate patient intake at existing stores, will allow Assured to significantly increase its national footprint over the next three years," DelVecchio commented.
Like all Assured Pharmacy stores, the new stores will operate on a compliance-based model to ensure strict control over the safe dispensing and delivery of controlled medications, as well as monitoring patients for all medications they receive, the company said. The majority of the company’s business comes from repeat visits from its customer base of physician-referred chronic pain patients.
For its fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2012, Assured Pharmacy had total sales of $14.15 million, dispensed 121,392 prescriptions and served 48,177 patients. The patient total reflects the number of patients serviced measured on a monthly basis.
