Walgreens Boots to Sell Pharmacy Wholesale Unit to AmerisourceBergen
Drugstore chain expects deal to help it focus on retail-pharmacy business, health-care offerings
✒ Walgreens is selling its wholesale business to AmerisourceBergen for US$6.5bn. The division buys medicines from manufacturers and then distributes them to pharmacies, hospitals and other facilities. It’s not a high margin business, but a steady one.
On the other hand, the retail pharmacy business — which is Walgreens’ core focus going forward — is not the cash cow it once was. The business of owning physical stores have been badly impacted by less foot traffic due to the pandemic; and it faces fresh competition from Amazon as well as its longtime rival CVS Health Corp.