Cencora (COR) FY2025 results: revenue $321.3 billion, up 9.3% on the year

Cencora sources pharmaceuticals from manufacturers and distributes them to the providers that dispense them: acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical and dialysis clinics, physician practices, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies and veterinarians, in the United States and selected markets abroad. Around the distribution it sells services to both sides of that chain, among them data analytics, outcomes research, reimbursement and regulatory consulting, pharmacovigilance, specialist logistics, inventory management, pharmacy automation and packaging. The company is a Delaware corporation and its financial year ends on 30 September. It reported two segments in fiscal 2025.

U.S. Healthcare Solutions

Brand-name, specialty brand-name and generic pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products and home healthcare supplies and equipment, sold to hospitals, health systems, retail and mail order pharmacies, medical clinics and long-term care pharmacies. The same segment supplies physicians who specialise in particular disease states, oncology and retina above all, with plasma and other blood products, injectable pharmaceuticals, vaccines and other specialty products. It also provides pharmacy management, staffing, consulting and supply management software, packaging solutions for institutional and retail providers, and, through its animal health business, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics and micro feed ingredients for both the companion animal and production animal markets. Good Neighbor Pharmacy is its programme for independent community pharmacies and Elevate Provider Network is its managed care network, connecting retail pharmacy customers to payor plans. Generics are sourced globally and sold through a private label programme based in Ireland.

Retina Consultants

On 2 January 2025 the company acquired an 85% interest in Retina Consultants of America for $4,042.0 million in cash. The physicians and members of management who kept the remaining 15% hold equity units carrying $694.4 million of contingent consideration, a further $545.7 million settled a net receivable from a pre-existing commercial relationship between the two, and $393.1 million of contingent consideration is payable to the sellers against business objectives set for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028. The cash was funded from cash on hand and new debt financing.

International business

Pharmaceutical wholesaling and related services to pharmacies, doctors, health centres and hospitals, primarily in Europe, under Alliance Healthcare. World Courier is the specialty transportation and logistics business serving the biopharmaceutical industry. PharmaLex supplies regulatory affairs, market access, pharmacovigilance, development consulting and scientific affairs, and quality management and compliance to life sciences companies. Innomar is the Canadian business, working with manufacturers, providers and pharmacies on product access and supply chain efficiency.

Customers and suppliers

The company is typically the primary source of supply for its healthcare provider customers, and concentration on both sides of the chain is high. The filing states that the top 10 customers, including governmental agencies and group purchasing organisations, accounted for approximately 66 percent of what was sold in fiscal 2025, that Walgreens and Boots together accounted for approximately 25 percent and that Evernorth Health Services accounted for approximately 13 percent. On the supply side no single manufacturer accounted for 10% or more of purchases in fiscal 2025, and the 10 largest suppliers together accounted for approximately 57%.

New reporting structure

The filing states that after a strategic review the reporting structure will change from the first quarter of fiscal 2026 to U.S. Healthcare Solutions, International Healthcare Solutions and Other. U.S. Healthcare Solutions is to hold U.S. Human Health. International Healthcare Solutions is to hold Alliance Healthcare, Innomar, World Courier and parts of PharmaLex. Other, which is not a reportable segment, holds the businesses for which the company has begun to explore strategic alternatives: MWI Animal Health, Profarma, U.S. Consulting Services and the rest of PharmaLex.

Competition and people

The filing names McKesson, Cardinal Health and UPS Logistics as the largest competitors, with the U.S. human health distribution business also facing national and regional generic distributors, manufacturers selling direct, chain drugstores that run their own warehouses, specialty distributors, and packaging and healthcare technology companies. The competitive factors it lists are price, product offerings, value-added service programmes, service and delivery, credit terms and customer support. There were more than 51,000 employees globally at 30 September 2025, approximately 47,000 of them full-time and approximately 41% based in the United States, with approximately 24% covered by collective bargaining agreements, nearly all of those outside the United States.

From Cencora's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 30 September 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 25 November 2025: read the full 10-K.