Indiana-based pharmacy business building $2.7M center in Plainfield

A Valparaiso-based pharmacy that supplies nursing homes, prisons, and other long-term-care facilities with medications is building a $2.7 million distribution center in Plainfield, creating 49 jobs.

In Touch Pharmaceuticals Inc. is planning the project, but declined to talk about it. The privately owned company did not respond to emails and phone calls from IBJ seeking information.

A summary of the project was recently posted on the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s website. A spokeswoman for the IEDC declined to provide an address, timetable or other basic information, and said a contract would be posted later. The state is giving the company $425,000 in conditional tax credits.

On its website, In Touch said it pioneered a process it calls the “unit dose short-cycle,” a dispensing process that provides medication-specific unit dose packages for residents, sequenced by date and time of administration.

“This means residents receive only the medication they need at the correct time,” In Touch said. “This makes administering medications easier, and it reduces the potential for medication errors while saving money.

Outside of pharmacy circles, the company keeps a low profile. It rarely issues press releases and few news outlets seem to write about the business, aside from occasional stories about public contracts with prisons or other facilities.

The company has a religious identity, claiming on its website to “believe in the importance and value of everyone,” with each playing a role in the company’s success.

“And finally, we believe in God who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to accept Him by faith and to bring Him glory in all that we do,” the website says.

In Touch Pharmaceuticals serves long term-care-facilities in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. It credits its system for helping clients reduce medication errors, cut waste and reduce costs.

The company says it can help prison pharmacies manage a hugely complex systems. Many offenders must take multiple medications on varying schedules, meaning custody and health staff must have a supportive medication administration system,” the company’s website says.

In Touch has a staff of more than 30 pharmacists and senior managers to oversee the dispensing systems and handle questions and complaints.