BioScrip expansion to offer injectable medicine

Despite a difficult economy, BioScrip, a Columbus-based pharmaceutical company, is continuing its expansion with the addition of an ambulatory infusion center.

The center, which will allow patients to receive injectable medications at the BioScrip facility rather than going to a hospital or clinic, is tentatively set to open in early 2010.

The company's growth mirrors the overall health-care industry, which has been able to avoid the worst effects of the downturn.

The expansion also includes a renovation of the company's specialty pharmacy operation, which mails out approximately 6,000 prescriptions daily nationwide. Both the center and pharmacy are in Hilliard.

The opening of the infusion center, however, also will signal BioScrip's switch to an open pharmacy, meaning patients will have the additional option of being able to go to the facility to pick up their medication.

"It helps to reduce the cost and adds convenience for patients," said Russ Corvese, executive vice president of mail operations. "Many of them need these medications on a frequent basis."

Dr. Erick Arce, a neurologist with Neurological Associations in Columbus, treats patients with multiple sclerosis and chronic headaches who use infusions. He said giving patients access to these medications outside a hospital can be convenient for those who live outside the city and have trouble getting around.

"They have the ability to be more flexible," Arce said. "But there are typically no physicians on-site, and if there are complications, the patient will probably end up at the emergency room when maybe they didn't need to be."

The mail-order operations remain BioScrip's main business. The company has grown from 40 employees to about 250 since it was created in 1994 in Rhode Island. Columbus became BioScrip's headquarters for mail-order prescriptions in 2000. It has relationships with companies whose insurance policies offer BioScrip's mail services as an option, or drug companies that make their medications available exclusively through BioScrip.

The infusion center will have specialized staff members to help with treatment and medications for diseases such as hemophilia, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. BioScrip employs nurses and special technicians to keep in contact with these patients and check up on how their treatment is going.

Many of the injectable medicines must be mixed just before they're dispensed, Corvese said, making the care of chronic diseases difficult and burdensome, not to mention expensive. The price of medications ranges from $2,000 to $5,000.

"Some of these medications don't actually make the patient feel better" but help to manage the disease, Corvese said "We have people on hand to do side-effect management as well." Some of the medications prevent flare-ups, or an escalation to a more severe stage, he added.

For rheumatoid arthritis, many of the most effective medications are either injections or infusions, said Nicholas Turkas, director of public health for the Arthritis Foundation's central Ohio chapter.

"These kinds of medications are a quantum leap forward as far as treatment goes," Turkas said. "Anything that can increase convenience for the patients is very important."