A not-for-profit drug company startup founded by health foundations and providers, Civica Rx, has teamed up with analytics and advisory company Vizient to address drug shortages.
Under the collaboration, Vizient will help Civica Rx find gaps in drug availability and affordability and provide insight into purchasing patterns and provider needs through data analytics, according to a press release.
The partnership is the most recent news coming from the much-watched drug company, which was founded in 2018 with $100 million in funding. The company’s aims are to develop generic drugs, address the chronic drug shortages of some common drugs in hospitals and provide lower-cost drug options.
Since its founding, Civica Rx announced it would launch 20 drug products in 2019 and inked a deal to distribute antibiotics with Xellia Pharmaceuticals.
Vizient’s entry into the not-for-profit’s initiative underscores the widespread efforts to combat hospital drug shortages. Vizient currently uses its analytics and data insights and pharmacy program Novaplus to mitigate drug shortages in its own member healthcare organizations.
“We applaud Vizient for helping to find innovative ways to reduce drug shortages through their analytics and data expertise,” Martin VanTrieste, Civica president and CEO, said in a statement. “The more people collaborating to solve the nation’s drug shortage problem the better. We thank Vizient for prioritizing hospital patients by taking action to help them have timely access to the treatments they desperately need on a day-to-day basis.”
Vizient calls itself the nation’s largest healthcare performance improvement company with a membership that includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated healthcare delivery network and non-acute healthcare providers. Its contract portfolio is more than $100 billion in annual purchasing volume.
“Our experience tells us that there are many different reasons for drug shortages––so it will take a wide variety of solutions to fully solve the problems," Dan Kistner, PharmD, senior vice president, pharmacy services at Vizient, said in a statement. "We look forward to working with Civica to help reduce and eventually eliminate drug shortages."
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."