VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — AmerisourceBergen Corp. plans to acquire PharMEDium Healthcare Holdings, Inc., a national provider of outsourced compounded sterile preparations (CSPs) to acute care hospitals, in a $2.575 billion cash deal.

AmerisourceBergen said Tuesday that PharMEDium, which is being purchased from private investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, is the leading provider of customized outsourced CSPs that meet specific hospital and physician clinical needs and quality standards in formulations not otherwise commercially available.

Plans call for PharMEDium to become a part of AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. (ABDC). Pending regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in AmerisourceBergen’s fiscal 2016 first quarter, which ends Dec. 31, 2015.

“The acquisition of PharMEDium strengthens our core business and meaningfully expands our innovative service offerings for health systems,” stated Steven Collis, AmerisourceBergen president and chief executive officer. “PharMEDium’s impressive track record of growth and proven ability to consistently deliver high-quality CSPs in key therapeutic areas make them the undisputed leader in an important growth area of the U.S. health care market.”

Collis called PharMEDium “a compelling addition to our business” and noted that the deal “allows us to provide differentiated offerings and further increases our ability to drive both value and efficiency for our health systems customers in a way that enhances patient safety and helps improve patient outcomes.”

PharMEDium delivers “sterile to sterile” CSPs in a ready-to-use form with enhanced safety, labeling, sterility assurance and extended expiration dating, supported by studies that often exceed what hospital pharmacies can accomplish on their own, according to AmerisourceBergen. The CSPs are prepared in state-of-the-art facilities inspected by the Food and Drug Administration and state boards of pharmacy, using only FDA-approved or allowed drugs in finished dosage form and FDA-approved diluents and FDA-cleared containers.

Serving more than 3,000 hospital customers nationwide, PharMEDium has four compounding facilities and provides 2,000 SKUs of products.

“We are excited about this transaction, which brings together two great brands built on the same strong foundation of patient safety and quality, service excellence and value to our customers,” commented William Spalding, CEO of PharMEDium. “We are confident in our ability to leverage the depth and breadth of the AmerisourceBergen organization to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our hospital pharmacy CSP services and solutions.”