Q: Where did you grow up?
My family moved to the United States from Ethiopia when I was two years old, and I spent my childhood in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago.
Q: Where did you go to college/graduate school?
I went to the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.
Q: What are your favorites?
Food: Probably easier to say the foods I don’t like but if I have to choose a favorite it would likely be Asian themed (e.g., sushi, chow mein, soup dumplings, etc.)
Movie: Drama – Shawshank Redemption; Comedy – Dumb and Dumber
Musicians: Bill Withers and J Cole
Destination: New York City, Cartagena, and Mexico City
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
Golf is my weekly adventure, even if I’m still working on mastering my swing! Chicago is my playground, where I love diving into its neighborhoods and soaking up all the amazing cultural vibes.
Q: What kind of work does your company do in 340B and what makes it stand out?
Maxor is a comprehensive pharmacy care solutions company that focuses on improving patient outcomes and lowering the total cost of care through a clinically integrated set of pharmacy care services, including:
- 340B Program: Maxor has achieved over 30% year-over-year growth in 340B program savings within three years, with a 70%+ capture rate and a 95% top box patient satisfaction score
- Specialty Pharmacy Services: Maxor operates specialty accredited pharmacies, sterile compounding sites for research support, and off-site medical billing services for long-acting injectables
- Pharmacy Benefit Solutions & Pharmacy Management Services: Maxor provides traditional, pass-through, and capitated Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) services with integrated mail order and specialty pharmacy offerings. They are the largest independent provider of rebate and formulary management, with proprietary analytics and unique formulary optimization capabilities
- Outsourced Pharmacy Management: Maxor is a leading provider of outsourced pharmacy management and operations for retail, outpatient, and specialty pharmacies, with special expertise in 340B covered entities
- Pharmacy Optimization: Maxor offers tailored, modular solutions for specialty, outpatient, and inpatient pharmacy optimization, including new pharmacy build-out and management, rebate optimization, and management
Q: Why did you choose to work in the 340B space?
Like many in the 340B world, I didn’t plan to work in this area but stumbled into it. My first job out of college was as an analyst at Walgreens on their 340B Decision and Support team. Initially, I thought 340B was the job ID! I soon became intrigued by the nuances of pharmacy operations and available datasets. Later, I worked at Deloitte for nearly a decade, developing my understanding of life sciences, health care, and the broader pharmacy industry beyond 340B. Throughout this journey, I realized that knowledge of 340B is crucial for understanding the broader pharmacy ecosystem, including potential implications to pharmacy operations.
Q: What do you feel is your most significant contribution to the 340B world or to a 340B customer/client?
My time at Walgreens might be the most impactful to the broader industry as I was influential in refining their validation system, allowing for increased accuracy and capture rate for all clients. Additionally, during my time at Deloitte I worked closely with nationally recognized health systems in differing 340B capacities, including by not limited to supporting data and analytics build out, optimization work, audit support, and operating as augmented staff.
Q: What advice do you have for a young professional who has recently launched a career in the 340B space?
Invest time in comprehending the intricacies of pharmacy workflows. By thoroughly analyzing the data and process flows, I gained a more comprehensive understanding of the 340B Program as a whole.
For questions, Abel can be reached abhaile@maxor.com.
