Pharmacists wanted

Growing sector prompts employee search for Accredo

The Commercial Appeal
September 14, 2007
By Daniel Connolly

Accredo Health Group Inc. is hiring dozens of people as it prepares to offer its specialty drugs and support services to an increasing number of patients with complex conditions like cancer and multiple sclerosis.

The firm plans to add 100 workers in the Memphis area by year end, said Tim Wentworth, Accredo president and CEO.

The company, which already employs about 1,300 locally, is wooing prospective employees through techniques such as billboard advertisements and a golf outing for pharmacy students from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, he said.

"Man, we are trying to hire," Wentworth said.

Accredo is looking for customer service workers, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.

It needs more workers because parent company Medco Health Solutions Inc., is transferring drugs from its portfolio to Accredo's, he said. And this summer, Accredo won a contract to supply mail service and specialty prescription drugs to federal employees around the nation.

The company's approach is more labor-intensive than simply handing out drugs.

The way it handles human growth hormone is a good example. Wentworth, who moved to Memphis last year from Medco's corporate office in Franklin Lakes, N.J., said the medication can help treat people like his niece, who has Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes poor muscle tone, low levels of sex hormones and a constant feeling of hunger.

Acting on orders from a doctor, Accredo delivers the drug to the patient's home, keeping it cold on the way through special packaging and carefully timed deliveries.

Most of the specialized drugs that Accredo transports must be kept cold.

Once the drug arrives, the patient is instructed how to use it. And in some cases a company representative calls the patient to see if he or she has suffered any adverse reactions.

There are other ways Accredo manages patient care. It sometimes warns doctors if they have given a patient a drug that will interact badly with another the patient is taking, Wentworth said.

In the case of human growth hormone, the company may investigate cases in which a person is taking the drug for nonmedical purposes, such as enhancing athletic performance, he said.

Health insurers look to companies like Accredo because of the increasing number of expensive specialty drugs on the market, said Arthur I. Henderson, a stock analyst with Jefferies & Co. in Nashville.

Human growth hormone, for instance, can cost between $5,000 and $20,000 per year, Accredo said. And the annual cost for treating Gaucher's disease -- a rare inherited metabolic disorder in which fatty substances accumulate in the liver, spleen, and bones -- is $275,000 per year, according to the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.

"You don't want people over-utilizing a drug that costs $100,000 a year to buy," Henderson said.

He said the future looks bright for Accredo because more than half of new drugs to be released between now and 2010 fall into the specialty or biotech category and will need special handling.

In a recent research note, analyst Robert M. Willoughby with Banc of America Securities said Accredo's growth could help lead to a 7 percent revenue increase for Medco this year.

The firm took in $42.5 billion in revenues in 2006.

-- Daniel Connolly: 529-5296

Accredo Health Group Inc.

President and CEO: Tim C. Wentworth

Nationwide employees: 3,100

Memphis-area employees: About 1,300

Address: 1640 Century Center Parkway

Web site: accredohealthgroup.com