CutisPharma Inc. Announces Strategic Collaboration with Rite Aid Corporation
WOBURN, Mass., July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- CutisPharma, Inc., an industry leader in developing products for prescription compounding, announced a partnership with Rite Aid Corporation that will make its innovative FIRST(R) Unit-of-Use Prescription Compounding Kits available for the approximately 27,000 pharmacists and pharmacy technicians at approximately 5,000 Rite Aid stores nationwide. Rite Aid will carry CutisPharma's FIRST(R) Unit-of-Use Prescription Compounding Kits nationwide in all its distribution centers, assuring constant availability. FIRST(R) products will allow Rite Aid the ability to offer compounding service to their customers and, for pharmacies already providing the service, increase the efficiency of their compounding offerings.
FIRST(R) Unit-of-Use Prescription-Compounding Kits are designed to provide an easy and time- saving solution for pharmacies. The pre-measured, pre- weighed components enable pharmacists to dispense the prescribed dosage accurately every time. A single NDC number assigned for the entire kit for each product greatly simplifies the third-party reimbursement process and reduces audit related adjustments. In addition, use of these kits facilitates compliance with the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter < 795 >.
"Our FIRST(R) Unit-of-Use compounding kits are user-friendly, save compounding time (by over 70%), and can be compounded by a Rite Aid pharmacist while the patient waits, increasing Rite Aid customer satisfaction and eliminating the need for an extra trip to the pharmacy," said Dr. Indu Muni, Chairman & CEO of CutisPharma.
Rite Aid Pharmacies will work with CutisPharma in notifying local physicians about the availability of compounding services at neighborhood Rite Aid stores using FIRST(R) kits.
It is estimated that approximately 30 million retail and hospital outpatient compounded prescriptions are prepared annually in the United States. About 1% of all prescriptions are compounded; and the U.S. market alone for compounding, at the consumer level, represents an estimated $1 billion annually.
CutisPharma currently has nine proprietary prescription compounding kits in the market:
The company plans to introduce several more compounding kits in late 2008 and 2009.
About Rite Aid Corporation
Rite Aid Corporation is one of the nation's leading drugstore chains with approximately 5,000 stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia with fiscal 2008 annual sales of more than $24.3 billion. Information about Rite Aid, including corporate background and press releases, is available through the company's website at http://www.riteaid.com.
About CutisPharma, Inc.
CutisPharma, Inc., based in Woburn, MA, is a privately held, specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on developing and commercializing value-added proprietary drug products and technologies in the prescription compounding sector of the pharmaceutical industry. Product line and development efforts initially are focused on providing optimized, more efficient alternatives for the preparation of the nearly 8 million currently compounded prescriptions, by offering FIRST(R) Unit-of-Use Prescription Compounding Kits. A U.S. patent has been issued to the Company and additional patents are pending.
CONTACT: James Nagle, V.P. Business Development of CutisPharma, Inc.,
+1-781-935-8141 x120
Web site: http://www.cutispharma.com/
http://www.riteaid.com/