{"id":361,"date":"2012-02-01T00:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T07:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RCP_TEST\/?p=361"},"modified":"2014-02-04T21:34:18","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T04:34:18","slug":"medco-express-scripts-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/medco-express-scripts-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Medco & Express Scripts Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Alisha Kumar, PharmD Candidate c\/o 2012<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Express Scripts proposed a $29 billion acquisition of Medco Health back in July 2011, and Medco\u2019s shareholders almost unanimously accepted the offer.\u00a0 According to Medco\u2019s press release, the plan was approved by a margin of 99% to 1%, with approximately 72% of its shareholders voting.<\/p>\n

The two companies manage prescription drug benefits for more than 115 million people and handle one third of all prescriptions filled in the United States (U.S.).\u00a0 Their collective revenues are greater than $110 billion per year, which means the merger would allow them to become the primary player in the domestic markets for providing mail-order drugs to patients with chronic conditions (as well as expensive specialty drugs for conditions such as HIV, hemophilia, and rheumatoid arthritis).<\/p>\n

The merger is interesting because it would reduce the number of major competitors from three to only two, which would leave customers (particularly large employers) too few choices and limited bargaining power.\u00a0 According to a recent analysis by Morgan Stanley Research, the 50 largest companies in the U.S. rely heavily on services of Medco, Express Scripts, and the third major pharmacy benefits manager (PBM), CVS Caremark.<\/p>\n

Keeping this in mind, it is not a surprise that there are antitrust concerns.\u00a0 Lawmakers feel that a merger will harm competition.\u00a0 However, George Paz, CEO of Express Scripts, claimed in a recent testimony, that the merger would be acceptable because drug prices are expected to drop due to heightened competition in the pharmaceutical industry (from both, brand and generic drugs).\u00a0 According to the two companies, this merger will allow for significant reductions in the nation\u2019s healthcare costs and allow drugs to be delivered in a safer and more efficient manner.<\/p>\n

Now, with both companies\u2019 shareholders in acceptance with the merger, the plan is for Express Scripts to pay $29 billion in cash and stock for Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based Medco.\u00a0 Meanwhile, each side waits to receive regulatory approvals by the federal government and expects to close the deal in the first half of 2012.<\/p>\n

SOURCES:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Weigley, Samuel.\u00a0 Medco Shareholders Approve Merger with Express Scripts.\u00a0 International Business Times<\/i>.\u00a0 December 21, 2011.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.ibtimes.com\/articles\/270954\/20111221\/medco-express-scripts-merger-shareholders-pharmacy-benefit.htm<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Barr, Diana.\u00a0 Express Scripts, Medco Shareholders OK Merger.\u00a0\u00a0 St. Louis Business Journal<\/i>.\u00a0 December 21, 2011.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/stlouis\/news\/2011\/12\/21\/express-scripts-medco-shareholders-ok.html<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Abelson, Reed.\u00a0 Concerns over Pharmacy Merger.\u00a0 The New York Times<\/i>.\u00a0 December 5, 2011.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/12\/06\/business\/tough-questions-for-express-scripts-medco-merger.html?pagewanted=all<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By: Alisha Kumar, PharmD Candidate c\/o 2012 – Express Scripts proposed a $29 billion acquisition of Medco Health back in July 2011, and Medco\u2019s shareholders almost unanimously accepted the offer.\u00a0 According to Medco\u2019s press release, the plan was approved by a margin of 99% to 1%, with approximately 72% of its shareholders voting. The two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[343,102,13,2229,2227,314,1044,20,23,97,70,363,968,2230,11,447,31,187,1061],"class_list":["post-361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-politics","tag-and","tag-december","tag-drug","tag-drugs","tag-ebola-virus-disease","tag-for","tag-generic","tag-health","tag-hiv","tag-july","tag-merger","tag-of","tag-one","tag-pharmaceutical","tag-pharmacy","tag-release","tag-research","tag-side","tag-with"],"views":1057,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhochistj.org\/RhoChiPost\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}