Prime Therapeutics will expand its Minnesota workforce by 375 jobs over the next three years, the Eagan-based pharmaceutical benefit manager announced Friday.
Prime Therapeutics already employs more than 2,000 in the state. Expansion is needed to handle growth in a variety of areas, including the health insurance exchanges, where Prime Therapeutics has 2 million new members, said company spokeswoman Marlene Kadlec.
With the growth, Prime Therapeutics is in the process of leasing a 70,000-square-foot building in Mendota Heights. It also expects to add jobs at its Eagan and Bloomington locations.
Insurance companies hire pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) to manage pharmacy benefits within health plans. The industry is at the center of a fight with drug companies about a pipeline of promising new medications that carry big price tags.
The newly created jobs at Prime Therapeutics include pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, clinical review assistants and other roles, the company said in a news release.
"This is an excellent opportunity for us to continue to recruit and hire the right people to help us deliver on our promise to help people get the medicine they need to feel better and live well," said Jim DuCharme, the company's president and chief executive, in a statement.
Prime Therapeutics is the nation's fifth-largest PBM, analysts say, and serves as the pharmacy manager for several Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka announced plans earlier this year to acquire an Illinois firm, thereby making its Optum division the nation's third largest PBM. The largest PBM is St. Louis-based Express Scripts, which employs more than 2,000 people in Bloomington.
