2014’s Top Retail Pharmacy Chains, According to Drug Store News

Drug Store News (DSN) has just released its latest rundown of the top pharmacy retailers in the powerfully-titled PoweRx Top Pharmacy Retailers. (Links below.)

As always, I highly recommend the PoweRx list to anyone who competes with, sells to, or otherwise interacts with retail pharmacies. This useful resource provides brief profiles of most organizations.

This year, Walgreens tops the DSN list, with $49 billion in prescription sales. Colorado-based chain Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy is no. 60, with $61 million in prescription sales—0.1% of Walgreens’ revenues.

Below, I show DSN's top 15 chains and highlight how the list differs from our broader but shorter list of 2014’s top retail, mail, and specialty pharmacies.

Here are links to the DSN lists:

• Main webpage for download

• Direct link to PDF (may require site registration)

Here are the largest 15 pharmacies, as measured by Drug Store News. See the original DSN article for the footnotes.

[Click to Enlarge]

In the Drug Channels Institute’s (DCI) 2014–15 Economic Report on Retail, Mail, and Specialty Pharmacies, Exhibit 11 lists the “Largest 15 U.S. Pharmacies Ranked by Total Prescription Revenues, 2014." The list is available for free download in 2014's Top Pharmacies: Specialty Shifts Industry Leadership.

Key differences between our lists:

• Specialty by Mail: Many of the biggest U.S. pharmacies (by revenue) are central-fill, mail businesses operated by such pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) as Express Scripts, UnitedHealth, Catamaran, Humana, and Prime Therapeutics. Specialty drugs account for 30% or more of revenues at these pharmacies.

• Independent Specialty Pharmacies: On the DSN list, Diplomat Pharmacy is the only independent specialty pharmacy. Avella didn’t make DCI’s top 15, but is one of the largest U.S. specialty pharmacies. See our list at The Top 10 Specialty Pharmacies of 2014.

• Franchise Programs and Marketing Groups: The DSN list includes such wholesaler marketing/franchise groups as Good Neighbor Pharmacy, Health Mart, and Medicine Shoppe. The DCI report includes these organizations in Exhibit 74 (“Pharmacy Franchise and Marketing Programs of Large Drug Wholesalers, 2013”).

• Data Differences: The DCI figures are based on calendar year data, which do not always correspond to the fiscal year data provided in the DSN list. The DCI list excludes non-outpatient drug revenue from Walgreens. The DCI list combines Walmart and Sam’s Club, while DSN lists them separately.

Despite these differences in approach, the DSN ranking is still a super useful industry reference. Go Go PoweRx Rangers!