Swedesboro NJ—(BUSINESS WIRE)—
Leading global private-markets firm
Partners Group has, on behalf of its clients, completed its purchase of the
majority equity share of Wedgewood
Pharmacy, the largest compounding pharmacy in the U.S. devoted to animal
health. The signing of an agreement to purchase was
announced previously on December 19, 2020. The firm replaces
New Harbor Capital as the majority
shareholder. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Marcy A. Bliss, CEO of Wedgewood Pharmacy, said: “This partnership begins a
new and expanding chapter in our company’s long history of improving the lives
of animals and the people who love them. We have ambitious plans to continue
responding to veterinarians and the needs of their patients.”
Future investments include:
- New product development, ensuring access to backordered medications, as
well as personalized medicine to treat vulnerable (and finicky) animal
patients.
- Process and technology improvements that make Wedgewood Pharmacy the
easiest to do business with.
- Increased production at the company’s FDA-registered 503B Outsourcing
Facility, Wedgewood
Connect, to ensure adequate availability of medication for office use.
- Logistics and operational investments that will speed delivery of
medication to patients and prescribers.
Chris Russell, managing director of Partners Group, added: “Wedgewood
Pharmacy's animal-health niche in compounding pharmacy fits well with
our
thematic focus on healthcare and our portfolio of healthcare-related companies,
which includes Blue River Pet Care,
one of the leading operators of veterinary hospitals for companion animals. We
are looking forward to our collaboration with Wedgewood Pharmacy’s excellent
management team to implement new transformational value-creation initiatives,
further solidifying the company’s leadership position.”
About Wedgewood Pharmacy
Wedgewood Pharmacy is the largest compounding pharmacy devoted to animal
health in the United States. Compounding is the long-established tradition in
pharmacy practice that enables practitioners to prescribe and patients to take
medicines that are specially prepared by pharmacists to meet patients'
individual needs. A growing number of patients have unique health and compliance
needs that off-the-shelf prescription medicines cannot meet. For them,
customized, compounded medications prescribed or ordered by licensed physicians
or veterinarians and prepared safely by trained, licensed compounding
pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are the only way to better health.
Compounded medications are created and prepared in state-regulated pharmacies
when mass-manufactured drugs are not, according to a prescriber, available or
are not appropriate for a patient. Wedgewood Pharmacy’s 503B Outsourcing
Facility, Wedgewood Connect, compounds medications under FDA’s modified cGMP
standards.
Today’s Wedgewood Pharmacy grew from a local community pharmacy to become one
of the largest compounding pharmacies in the United States. It is the leading
pharmacy brand in animal health, recognized by 99% of veterinarians, and used by
8 in 10 veterinarians within the past year. It also prepares compounded
medications for the human-health medical specialties of Addiction Medicine,
Urology, and Ophthalmology. The company serves more than 50,000 prescribers and
hundreds of thousands of patients throughout the U.S. every year.
George (late) and Lucy Malmberg, both pharmacists, purchased Wedgewood
Pharmacy in 1981, the year after the pharmacy opened. In June 2016, New Harbor
Capital became the majority shareholder of the company. In 2018, the company
acquired Diamondback Drugs. In 2020, the company purchased and began production
at Wedgewood Connect, an FDA-registered 503B Outsourcing Facility, in San Jose,
California. In the same year, the company acquired Wildlife Pharmaceuticals and ZooPharm, in Colorado and Wyoming,
respectively.
Wedgewood Pharmacy is accredited by the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation
Board (PCAB®) for compliance with PCAB and other nationally recognized
compounding standards. PCAB was formed by eight of the nation’s leading pharmacy
associations and is a service of Accreditation Commission for Health Care. As a
third-party accreditation organization, PCAB has developed the highest national
standards against which providers are measured to demonstrate their ability to
effectively and efficiently deliver quality compounded medications to consumers.
Wedgewood Pharmacy employs more than 700 people.
About Partners Group
PPartners Group is a leading global private markets firm. Since 1996, the firm
has invested over USD 145 billion in private equity, private real estate,
private debt, and private infrastructure on behalf of its clients globally.
Partners Group seeks to generate superior returns through capitalizing on
thematic growth trends and transforming attractive businesses and assets into
market leaders. The firm is a committed, responsible investor and aims to create
sustainable returns with lasting, positive impact for all its stakeholders. With
over USD 109 billion in assets under management as of 31 December 2020, Partners
Group provides an innovative range of bespoke client solutions to institutional
investors, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and private individuals
globally. The firm employs more than 1,500 diverse professionals across 20
offices worldwide and has regional headquarters in Baar-Zug, Switzerland;
Denver, USA; and Singapore. It has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange since
2006 (symbol: PGHN). For more information, please visit
www.partnersgroup.com or follow the
company on LinkedIn
or Twitter.