Serving the Outpatient Community to Make Healthy Possible

Amneal’s relationship with the ambulatory market continues to grow as the new year progresses.

The evolving ambulatory surgery center (ASC) community has brought together new partnerships and many innovations as facilities across the country continue to introduce new service lines and offer patients an alternative to hospital stays. More complex surgeries are joining the already burgeoning outpatient surgeries available as safe surgery in the outpatient setting sets the bar for the future.

The leaders of outpatient surgery facilities face many challenges in this rapidly evolving market, from staffing to equipment to supply chain concerns. They need to dig deep every day to make their facilities successful, and that takes a mindset that looks to the future and deals with the everyday in creative, innovative ways.

Amneal is a company that understands how to lead forward with a mantra that calls for their teams to “Rise, Lead, Succeed” as they fulfill the company’s purpose to make healthy possible. Certainly, outpatient leaders can relate to Amneal’s culture pillars encouraging employees to unite as a team, continuously improve, drive results and learn from both successes and failures. Inspiration comes from trust and taking risks — something that ASC leaders live every day.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Bridgewater, N.J., develops, manufactures and distributes a diverse portfolio of more than 280 generic and specialty pharmaceuticals, primarily within the United States. In its Generics segment, the Company is expanding across a broad range of complex product categories and therapeutic areas, including injectables and biosimilars. In its Specialty segment, Amneal has a growing portfolio of branded pharmaceuticals focused primarily on central nervous system and endocrine disorders, with a pipeline focused on unmet needs.

Today, Amneal is much more than generics. For two decades, brothers Chirag and Chintu Patel have led Amneal’s commitment not only to producing quality, accessible generic and specialty medicines for patients, but also to elevating its people and communities. Amneal is better positioned than ever to deliver outcomes that meet important medical needs, make quality medicines more accessible and more affordable, and provide solutions for tomorrow’s health challenges.

Outpatient Surgery Magazine spoke with John Fallon, Vice President, Institutional Sales, and Kathryn Kovalic, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Institutional Sales, about the future of patient care, the role of leaders and partnerships, and the trends that are influencing innovations and health care in general.

Q: What is the overall mission of your company in serving healthcare needs? Are you seeing any significant trends from the field?

At Amneal, our purpose is to make healthy possible by focusing on what matters most: responsibly helping patients live better lives through high-quality, accessible medications.

Over the last several years, Amneal has substantially diversified our business beyond the company’s core capabilities in generics. We have bolstered our world-class scientific rigor, production capabilities and commercial infrastructure to expand into branded pharmaceuticals, biosimilars and injectables. These advancements have accelerated our ability to deliver innovation, more complex products and broadened portfolios.

Today, we serve key healthcare stakeholders by building long-term relationships rooted in listening, learning and adapting to how your business works. We then leverage our robust portfolios, creative R&D capabilities and passion for delivering solutions to help you enable better patient access to care. That’s how we help make healthy possible.

Q: What do you feel are the biggest challenges leaders face today?

Consistent availability of product(s), particularly injectables, appears to be one of the biggest challenges in the industry today. The persistent shortage is driven by multiple factors, including unstable market economics, supply chain disruptions and the need for supply redundancy.

Amneal has made meaningful investments to expand our capacity and capabilities and deliver on our goal to be a significant injectables player. We currently offer a portfolio of more than 40 injectable products for the U.S. institutional market with 13 injectables that are on the ASHP shortage list. We have also tripled our injectables capacity to 60 million units across four manufacturing facilities and expect to grow the portfolio to 60 commercial injectable products this year.

We’re focused on being a partner our customers can count on to provide a consistent supply of high-quality medicines for their patients.

Q: What makes a good partner?

The healthcare market is continuously evolving, and we too have been evolving our business to meet changing needs and dynamics. Despite all the change and growth, we have never lost sight of our commitment to quality and building long-term relationships focused on service and adaptability. For more than two decades, patients, customers, physicians, and pharmacists trust and enjoy partnering with us. We deliver quality pharmaceuticals that are safe and effective. Our supply chain is reliable and dependable. And we take great pride in bringing you solutions that enable you to meet the needs of your patients.

Q: What does a partnership with outpatient surgery leaders look like to you?

A partnership with an outpatient healthcare leader can take a multi-faceted approach. By working with healthcare providers, Amneal can offer educational initiatives that can include training on treatment methods, new drugs and best practices. Various marketing programs can be offered to assist in getting messages out to patients and the broader community through digital health solutions or diagnostic tools. Additional collaborations on various care models can lead to more efficient and effective healthcare delivery and assist with outpatient support programs to help patients manage their conditions.

Q: Does Amneal offer custom support for the outpatient community? What about help during supply shortages?

Amneal’s institutional business is anchored by a team of deeply experienced sales and marketing professionals who understand your business and unique market. We also offer a dedicated online customer portal enabling you to view product details, place and track orders, monitor payables, and view invoices 24/7.

Q: What’s on the horizon? Are there new products and services coming soon?

Unlike many of our competitors, Amneal holds in-house expertise in both complex product development and manufacturing, which reduces our reliance on third parties and enables us to deliver better economics on high-value products. Amneal development capabilities span nearly all dosage forms, including complex oral solids, ophthalmics, liquids, topicals, inhalants and transdermal, along with injectables. A growing biosimilars portfolio, which includes three products currently marketed and four in development, further enhances the value we can offer.

Q: What are three words that describe the Amneal philosophy and why?

Innovative, Reliable, Trustworthy

• Innovative – Amneal has significant expertise in developing new innovative product formulations and product presentations.
• Reliable – Amneal’s culture of quality is a core pillar of our success and is defined by our unwavering teamwide commitment to integrity, transparency and compliance, therefore ensuring that our medications are available to clinicians and patients.
• Trustworthy – We built our reputation on producing and delivering high quality generic pharmaceuticals, consistently meeting industry practices and global regulatory standards. Our customers, the pharmacists who dispense our products, and the physicians who prescribe our medicines, trust that Amneal will deliver safe and effective medicines. And we take great care in preserving this confidence placed in us.

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Growing Your Business

Adding a new service line can set your facility apart from other outpatient organizations in your community, so it is not surprising that many leaders are setting their sights for this type of growth. The goal may be to launch in 2025, or the plan may call for multi-year phasing, but no matter what the timetable, smart leaders know that the commitment to expand their businesses will keep them on track and successful.

The challenges to expand or add a service line to bolster revenue, however, is not without challenges. Physical space, staffing and physician recruitment are among the variables that need to be considered. The type of equipment and supplies necessary for various surgical procedures as well as their cost also are important factors that need to be established in the early planning phases.

Add to the mix is the in-depth research required surrounding reimbursement and bottom-line ROI, an exercise that leaders need to spearhead in order to get buy-in from all stakeholders. It’s a task that will pay dividends down the road, so it’s especially vital that leaders do a thorough job, lean on their networks for advice, and learn from the experiences of others.

It takes a lot of homework to establish what is best for your facility and community, so the exercise to lay out the options and necessary steps is critical for success. The facility’s leadership team and individual leaders hold the key to growth. One of the best tools to consider is AORN’s ASC Academy Expanding Service Lines to get started on this journey. OSM