FLINT — Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy has earned a position for the fifth consecutive year on Inc. magazine’s exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies— ranking third in the nation in the list’s health category for revenue, a jump from fourth from a year ago, and its three year growth rate was pegged at 199 percent – from $377.5 million in 2009 to $1.1 billion in 2012.
“Recognition on the Inc. 5,000 list continues to be an important metric in gauging our overall growth,” said CEO Phil Hagerman, who co-founded Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy with his father Dale Hagerman following graduation from pharmacy school in 1975. “What is especially meaningful to the Diplomat team is we continue to grow the business and forge relationships with new health care industry partners while achieving sustained customer and physician satisfaction rates above 98 percent.”
With almost 500 jobs created between 2009 and 2012, Diplomat was cited by Inc. magazine in December 2012 as one of nation’s top 100 job creators. Looking forward, Hagerman foresees additional business and job growth.
“Diplomat remains on track to add a total of 1,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2015. We’ll need that increased capacity as projected specialty pharmacy purchases are projected to be 50 percent of the total drug spend by 2018,” Hagerman said.
Hagerman noted that even more important than job growth is Diplomat’s unwavering attention to patient care and its clinical mission to improve patient compliance and adherence as drug therapies grow more complex and costly, and often bring challenging side effects.
“The key to optimal patient compliance and adherence lies with patient education and training, packaging that keeps drugs safe and secure yet is easy for patients to open, side effect management kits, nurse adherence calls for clinical support and guidance, and adaptive technology, whether that be through smart phones, prescription bottles with glow caps or packaging with alarms and reminders,” Hagerman said.
Complete results of the Inc. 5,000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/5000.
“Not all the companies in the Inc. 500 | 5000 are in glamorous industries, but in their fields they are as famous as household name companies simply by virtue of being great at what they do. They are the hidden champions of job growth and innovation, the real muscle of the American economy,” said Inc. Editor Eric Schurenberg.