Shields Health Solutions is acquiring ExceleraRx

Shields Health Solutions is acquiring ExceleraRx, the companies announced today.

The combined entity will be a specialty pharmacy powerhouse that will serve more 60 health systems and academic medical centers and 700 hospitals that “account for the opportunity of $30 billion in specialty pharmacy revenue,” says the press release about the acquisition.

“On-site, integrated specialty pharmacy is the future of complex patient care and we look forward to combining forces with Excelera to make our impact even greater. As we have shown, this model materially improves clinical outcomes for patients and reduces total medical expenses for covered patients,” said Lee Cooper, the CEO of Shields, said in a press release.

“Shields and Excelera have a shared vision for enabling fully integrated, on-site care for patients with complex, chronic diseases by promoting cross-industry collaboration and best practice sharing,” Troy Polan, acting CEO at Excelera, said in the prepared announcement.

“Shields has been a leader of the evolving specialty pharmacy industry since the company’s inception eight years ago,” said Jack Shields, founder and chairman of Shields, in the press release. “Our acquisition of Excelera will expand our health system footprint, enhance our data and technology platform, and uniquely position Shields to spur growth in the $100 billion-plus specialty pharmacy market.”

The use of specialty medications to treat patients with multiple, chronic illnesses or rare, hard-to-treat diseases is increasing an average of 17% per year, and health systems across the U.S. have been building on-site, integrated specialty pharmacies to provide comprehensive, streamlined care for this growing group of patients.

Since 2015, the prevalence of health system-owned specialty pharmacies in large hospitals has doubled, with nearly 90% of large hospitals operating a specialty pharmacy in 2019, the press release said.