Civica Rx, the nonprofit generic drugmaker formed by a group of health systems, will begin by distributing two essential antibiotics, the company announced May 15.
The nonprofit generic drugmaker will begin by manufacturing and distributing vancomycin and daptomycin before the end of the third quarter of this year.
To help manufacturer the products, Civica Rx has partnered with its first supplier, Xellia Pharmaceuticals, which will make the antibiotics for the more than 800 hospitals in the nonprofit's network.
Under the agreement, the hospitals in the network will purchase antibiotics from Xellia for five years.
The antibiotics, which have been in and out of shortage, are key to hospital efforts to deal with drug-resistant infections.
Many brand-name drugmakers also have bowed out of the antibiotics industry in recent years.
The health systems formed Civica Rx last year to help address drug shortages and the rising costs of medications. They have committed to making 14 drugs this year.