Acquisition Will Strengthen OTN's Specialty Pharmacy Offering and Accelerate Company's Expansion Into New Business Lines

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- OTN (Oncology Therapeutics Network), a leading independent oncology services company and a One Equity Partners portfolio company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ivpcare, the largest privately-held national specialty pharmacy offering clinical services and distribution of pharmaceuticals to patients with chronic conditions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For the last year, OTN has partnered with ivpcare to provide home delivery services of oral chemotherapy medications directly to patients through OTN's Specialty Solutions service.

"Acquiring a specialty pharmacy has been one of our key business goals as it will help us move beyond our core strength of oncology and accelerate our growth in other medical specialties focused on treating chronic diseases," said John Amos, president and CEO of OTN. "ivpcare's outstanding reputation of unparalleled service will allow us to augment our logistics channel and help us secure new managed care business by strengthening our offerings in a variety of specialties. We are excited to add ivpcare's respected management team to OTN."

"As a specialty pharmacy, ivpcare has been providing pharmacy services and distributing pharmaceuticals developed for niche therapeutic indications to patients, pharmacies and physicians for more than a decade. Combining with OTN will give us the ability to more rapidly expand our services and better serve our customers," said Von Best, president and CEO of ivpcare. "We are excited to join with OTN to develop our clinical education services, disease management programs and other value-added services for patients, physicians, managed care organizations and manufacturers in the chronic care setting."

The acquisition of ivpcare will broaden OTN's offerings for several key chronic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and infertility. For the community-based rheumatology market, for which OTN is currently the second largest distributor, OTN will be able to offer self-injectable drugs such as Enbrel(R) and Humira(R) and a large number of oral treatments.

Once the acquisition closes, ivpcare will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of OTN's parent company. Mr. Best and the current ivpcare senior management team will continue to run the company.

ivpcare is the largest privately held national specialty pharmacy offering clinical services and distribution of pharmaceuticals developed for chronic therapeutic indications.  ivpcare provides comprehensive programs for patients, physicians, payors and pharmaceutical manufacturers for a growing number of disease states including hepatitis C, infertility, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and others.  Headquartered in Frisco, Texas, ivpcare has distribution facilities there, as well as in Torrance, Calif., St. Louis, Mo., and Wilmington, Mass.

OTN is an industry-leading oncology services company that provides oncology drugs, supportive care products and related supplies to more than 2,400 office-based oncology practices in the United States, comprising more than 4,000 physicians.  OTN was recognized as one of InformationWeek's top 500 companies in 2003 and 2004 and was honored with Frost & Sullivan's 2005 Customer Value Enhancement Award in recognition of its role in advancing cancer care in the community-based setting.  OTN continues to develop innovative technology solutions to help oncology practices improve practice efficiency, minimize costs and maximize revenues.  OTN is dedicated to helping community-based oncology practices extend and enhance the lives of people with cancer by offering the highest level of customer service and a knowledgeable support staff.  For more information, please visit http://www.myOTN.com.