Omnicare, Inc. Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-08-05 22:53:15.0

Tags: Omnicare Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from Lisa Gill with JPMorgan.

Lisa Gill - JPMorgan

Thank you, and good morning. I just have a couple of quick questions, Joel. First off, when we think about specialty pharmacy and the recent acquisition that you made and your continued growth in specialty pharmacy, can you just give us an idea of how many of your beds today utilize specialty pharmacy? Is it just that the number that you disclose or are those beds on top of current beds that you have for regular medication that you are serving, just so I understand that? And then secondly on the Full Potential Plan, when you talked about the benefits now going beyond 2009, should we still be looking at the benefit next year still being in that $100 million to $120 million range?

Joel F. Gemunder - President and Chief Executive Officer

Your first question was to what extend do we use biologic agents in our base business, if I understood the question correctly, and the answer is, it's a growing portion of our routine business in the institutional pharmacy setting, because the... of the new drugs being produced, the vast majority of these drugs that are being approved by the FDA are for treatments hitherto unavailable to patients, and many of these new treatments are in the form of large molecule or biologic... essentially proteins. And we're seeing that move is by no means the majority of our business today, but it is a growing robust element of our business because these diseases that these drugs are meant to deal with are largely found in the elderly population.

Lisa Gill - JPMorgan

Okay, and when we think about that opportunity, just in general terms, are the margins generally better around the specialty pharmacy than it is for your core book of business?

Joel F. Gemunder - President and Chief Executive Officer

I'd say it comprise of wide range, some are better, some are not as good as some other drugs. Remember there is a patented products and the pharmaceutical manufacturer really controls the margin in this business. So I would say, on average it's probably a little bit higher than our normal margin that's growing.

Lisa Gill - JPMorgan

Okay, and then--.

Joel F. Gemunder - President and Chief Executive Officer

Although that changes from month to month.

Lisa Gill - JPMorgan

 

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