Amerisourcebergen Corp

AmerisourceBergen Corp., created last month from the combination of two of the nation's largest drug wholesalers, said Monday it should be able to generate greater savings than initially anticipated. The company, formed after AmeriSource Health Corp.'s acquisition of rival Bergen Brunswig Corp. in Orange received regulatory approval, boosted its estimate of annual savings from the combination to $150 million in three years from $125 million.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. said it would file a complaint seeking to overturn the $3-billion-per-year pharmaceutical supply contract that the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded to its rival McKesson Corp. AmerisourceBergen, which previously held the VA contract, will file the complaint today with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, asking the court to overturn the award and issue the contract, in whole or in part, to AmerisourceBergen, the company said.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. said it would file a complaint seeking to overturn the $3-billion-per-year pharmaceutical supply contract that the Department of Veterans Affairs awarded to its rival McKesson Corp. AmerisourceBergen, which previously held the VA contract, will file the complaint today with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, asking the court to overturn the award and issue the contract, in whole or in part, to AmerisourceBergen, the company said.

AmerisourceBergen Corp., created last month from the combination of two of the nation's largest drug wholesalers, said Monday it should be able to generate greater savings than initially anticipated. The company, formed after AmeriSource Health Corp.'s acquisition of rival Bergen Brunswig Corp. in Orange received regulatory approval, boosted its estimate of annual savings from the combination to $150 million in three years from $125 million.

Drug wholesaler Cardinal Health Inc. said it would get out of a secondary market for buying drugs, a business that has caught the eye of regulators. "It's a business decision based on declining revenue," Cardinal spokesman Jim Mazzola said. Wholesalers buy pharmaceuticals from drug makers and resell them to pharmacies and hospitals but also buy and sell pharmaceuticals from one another in a secondary market. New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer subpoenaed the three largest U.S.

James and Suzanne Mellor have given $5 million to the Laguna Playhouse, which is billing the gift as the largest ever to a Laguna Beach nonprofit. Richard Stein, the playhouse's executive director, said the money would serve as a cornerstone of the theater's plan to build a second, smaller stage on land adjacent to the company's existing home, the 420-seat Moulton Theatre.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Kindred Healthcare Inc. said they had agreed to form a new public company, combining their pharmacy units that serve mostly nursing homes. The deal sent AmerisourceBergen's shares up 46 cents to $43.18, while Kindred's shares rose $1.94 to $30.94. The new company would be the second-biggest player in the institutional pharmacy market, after leader Omnicare Inc., and it seeks to use its bulk to benefit from the new prescription drug benefits under Medicare.

Drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. said Wednesday that a California jury had found that the company must pay $15 million in punitive damages to an employee who claimed she was fired after she developed a mental illness. The verdict from the jury in Woodland, Calif., follows an award of $3.5 million in compensatory damages last month to Charlene Roby for wrongful termination, harassment and disability discrimination, McKesson said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

AmeriSource Health Corp.'s $4.1-billion purchase of rival Bergen Brunswig Corp., to form the largest U.S. drug wholesaler, was cleared Friday by U.S. antitrust enforcers, who said the combination probably will lead to lower prices. The combination of No. 3 Bergen Brunswig, based in Orange, with No. 4 AmeriSource, based in Valley Forge, Pa., will be called AmeriSource-Bergen Corp. The Federal Trade Commission voted 5-0 not to challenge the acquisition.

McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., the nation's two biggest drug distributors, said Friday that they had received subpoenas from New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer's office in an industrywide inquiry into purchases from other wholesalers. The Spitzer notice seeks "documents and other information relating to the secondary wholesale market for pharmaceutical products," San Francisco-based McKesson said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

AmeriSource Health Corp.'s $4.1-billion purchase of rival Bergen Brunswig Corp. to form the largest U.S. drug wholesaler was cleared Friday by U.S. antitrust enforcers, who said the combination probably will lead to lower prices. The combination of No. 3 Bergen Brunswig, based in Orange, with No. 4 AmeriSource, based in Valley Forge, Pa., will be called AmeriSource-Bergen Corp. The Federal Trade Commission voted 5-0 not to challenge the acquisition.

McKesson Corp.'s quarterly profit climbed 58% as the No. 3 U.S. drug wholesaler sold more medicines, health-care supplies and services. Net income for the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to $124.8 million, or 42 cents a share, from $79 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier. Revenue excluding shipments to customers' warehouses, a benchmark for drug wholesalers, rose 15% to $10.3 billion from $8.91 billion, McKesson said in a statement. Pharmaceutical sales rose 17% to $9.