Premier Inc. Announces Expanded Effort to Supply Shortage Generic Drugs

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (January 14, 2019) — Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a leading healthcare improvement company, today announced a company it has established to help ensure health systems have continuous and affordable access to shortage medications, as well as those in categories that lack competition. The company builds on Premier’s eight-year track record of direct contracting for healthcare supplies and extends existing programs that are successfully providing uninterrupted access to more than 91 shortage stock keeping units (SKUs).

The company, ProvideGx, provides a vehicle for Premier to invest in innovative new business models and partnerships to address drug shortages, including partnering with quality generic drug manufacturers that can supply shortage products, co-funding the development of affordable products that address specific market needs, and securing contracts for active pharmaceutical ingredients to ensure a continuous supply as well as strategic sourcing agreements. ProvideGx has already partnered with five high-quality generic manufacturers to address a targeted pipeline of 60 crucial drugs, and expects to begin marketing additional shortage products next month, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“As the trusted sourcing organization for hundreds of pharmaceutical products, aggregating the purchasing demand of hundreds of thousands of providers, Premier is already a recognized leader in preventing drug shortages and price spikes,” said Michael J. Alkire, Chief Operating Officer of Premier. “Given our deep expertise, data-driven insights on the supply channel and unique partnership model with our members, ProvideGx is a natural extension of Premier’s overall approach. Consistent with our member-led direct contracting supply chain strategy, this initiative is expected to take Premier’s work to a new level by partnering with and investing in companies that can reliably source shortage drugs via an efficient and price-competitive strategy.”

“For years Premier has been taking innovative steps to solve the complex drug shortage problem, and we are excited that they are bringing real solutions to the market,” said Paul Rathbun, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AdventHealth and Chair of Premier’s Member Value Improvement Committee.

According to the University of Utah Drug Information Service, 224 vital medications are in current shortage nationwide, including antimicrobials, cardiovascular drugs, sedation medications, electrolytes, nutritional supplements and chemotherapy drugs. As a result of these persistent shortages, 96 percent of health systems report that securing an adequate source of supply is a near constant challenge.

ProvideGx is guided by 31 Premier member health systems and the company’s National Pharmacy Committee, representing more than 1,000 hospitals across the nation.

Revenues from the new company are not expected to materially impact Premier FY 2019 results.

Forward-looking statements Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC and available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.