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On Sunday, Ceremony Assist, as soon as the biggest U.S. pharmacy chain, filed for chapter court docket safety from its collectors and vowed to remake the corporate as a “fashionable neighborhood pharmacy.”
Now, in certainly one of its first steps, it says it’s closing 154 shops in additional than 10 states.
The branches set to be shuttered had been detailed in a submitting on Tuesday in chapter court docket in New Jersey. The shop closings are supposed to assist Ceremony Assist get monetary savings on hire and enhance its monetary footing.
Ceremony Assist shops in Pennsylvania, California and New York will take the brunt of the closures. About 40 areas in Pennsylvania might be shut. Extra closings are anticipated as the corporate works to rid itself of billions of {dollars} in debt. It has about 45,000 workers, together with 6,100 pharmacists.
A few of Ceremony Assist’s largest collectors embrace the pharmaceutical firm McKesson and the insurer Humana Well being.
Ceremony Assist’s chapter comes after years of regular declines in gross sales. It additionally faces greater than 1,000 lawsuits accusing it of filling unlawful prescriptions for painkillers. The chain has greater than 2,000 shops throughout 17 states, properly behind its rivals CVS Pharmacy, which has almost 10,000 shops nationwide, and Walgreens, which has virtually 9,000. Ceremony Assist downscaled significantly after a failed merger with Walgreens in 2017.
As of June, in line with firm filings, Ceremony Assist had $3.3 billion in debt, not counting the pending opioid litigation. Its inventory has fallen almost 80 % because the begin of the 12 months.
The corporate has secured as much as $3.45 billion in financing from its lenders to function in the course of the chapter restructuring, in line with an organization assertion. Ceremony Assist will promote its pharmacy profit firm Elixir to MedImpact Healthcare Programs.
Jeffrey Stein, who was named Sunday as Ceremony Assist’s chief government, stated the chain would use the chapter course of to emerge as “a stronger firm.”
Lauren Hirsch and Jordyn Holman contributed reporting.
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