The particularly severe flu season has led to higher revenue for care providers and other companies along the pharmaceutical supply chain, reports Bloomberg.
Here are six things to know.
1. Hospitalization rates for flu patients have reached record highs, according to the CDC. As a result, providers have seen higher revenues from the influx of admissions. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare said its admissions rose 5.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018, which is the highest increase since the 2014-2015 flu season.
2. While margins for flu treatments are thin, the surge in demand for flu treatments has improved finances for drug distributors like McKesson and drug retailers, including Walgreens and CVS Health.
3. On Thursday, CVS announced its operating profit for the first quarter of 2018 will be better than forecasted, because it has been filling so many prescriptions for flu treatments.
4. McKesson CEO Jon Hammergren told Bloomberg it saw a push in sales from "tailwinds" due to the flu.
5. In addition, laboratory companies like Quest Diagnostics are seeing revenue boosts as more sick patients are being sent for lab tests and blood work.
6. Pharmaceutical giants such as GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi have also benefited from the severe flu season. Glaxo saw flu vaccine sales increase 86 percent in the fourth quarter and Sanofi sold 21 percent more in the same quarter.
"We delivered a strong performance in flu vaccines," said Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofi's CEO, according to Bloomberg. "This was driven by pandemic purchases in the U.S."