Premier Inc. Partners with Pensiamo Inc. and UPMC to Launch AI-Powered Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Solution

PITTSBURGH & CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC), a healthcare improvement company, and Pensiamo Inc., a cognitive supply chain company, have partnered to launch a new pharmaceutical supply chain solution that was co-developed with UPMC, a world-renowned healthcare provider and insurer.

CognitiveRx™ is a comprehensive pharmaceutical supply chain solution that predicts, manages and solves for challenges related to drug shortages, inflation, declining reimbursement and other factors impacting the life sciences supply chain. UPMC, which owns Pensiamo, will be the first to implement CognitiveRx to more precisely monitor market demand signals, predict shortage risk and recommend inventory levels that support its ability to insulate patient care from supply disruption.

“CognitiveRx provides access to market exclusive recommendations that predict drug supply disruption risk, and support the rapid identification of clinical, purchasing and inventory solutions,” said Jim Szilagy, President and CEO of Pensiamo and Chief Supply Chain Officer for UPMC. “The teams at Pensiamo and UPMC have developed a truly innovative tool, and we are excited to partner with Premier to launch it. We believe it will help UPMC and other healthcare organizations advance cost management and drug shortage mitigation strategies to further bend the cost curve.”

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), CognitiveRx uses machine learning to bring speed and reliability to the process of controlling and reducing pharmaceutical costs. Specifically, CognitiveRx sends real-time “buy-right” signals to direct procurement activities and recommend formulary management strategies for buying the most advantageous products. By replacing manual data manipulation and integrating siloed data sources, the solution enables rapid insights on price increase predictions, egregious price changes and margin capture opportunities.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Pensiamo and UPMC on the launch of CognitiveRx,” said David A. Hargraves, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Premier. “This collaboration is an excellent complement to Premier’s market-leading suite of supply chain technologies that are designed to better inform overall contracting and sourcing processes. As more health systems adopt it, we will continue to improve pharmaceutical costs and ensure patients across the country have the medication they need when they need it.”

As part of the partnership, Premier will offer CognitiveRx to hospitals and health systems and provide market exclusive purchasing recommendations to maximize high volume opportunities. CognitiveRx is supported by a specialized team of advanced data managers, data scientists and pharmacy professionals who automate the intake and review of purchase data, garner insights, generate machine learning algorithms and develop AI models to enable an optimal pharmacy supply chain strategy.

The financial terms of this agreement are not being disclosed.

Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Premier to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. In addition to statements that explicitly describe such risks and uncertainties, readers are urged to consider statements in the conditional or future tenses or that include terms such as “believes,” “belief,” “expects,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “plans” to be uncertain and forward-looking. Forward-looking statements may include comments as to Premier’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside Premier’s control. More information on potential factors that could affect Premier’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Forward-Looking Statements,” “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of Premier’s periodic and current filings with the SEC and available on Premier’s website at investors.premierinc.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Premier undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise that occur after that date.

About Pensiamo

Pensiamo, a cognitive supply chain company, combines supply chain expertise, artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics capabilities to provide bottom line value to healthcare organizations. By harnessing the power of data, Pensiamo better informs decisions related to supplier and product selection and usage so that healthcare providers can succeed in an industry rapidly transitioning to value-based care. Launched in 2016, Pensiamo is an independent, for-profit enterprise with UPMC, a world-renowned healthcare provider and insurer, as its founding client.

About UPMC

A $20 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 87,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a 3.5 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year, UPMC contributed $1.2 billion in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution, and paid $587 million in federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC shares its clinical, managerial and technological skills worldwide through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises, and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor Roll of America’s Best Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.

About Premier Inc.

Premier Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems and approximately 165,000 other providers and organizations to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.

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