Mckesson Corp

Drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. won an 82% reduction of a $19-million jury verdict that resulted from an employee's lawsuit for wrongful termination. San Francisco-based McKesson must now pay $3.41 million ($1.41 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages), a California appeals court in Sacramento said in a ruling filed Tuesday. The company also must pay the employee's lawyer fees.

Drug distributor McKesson Corp. posted an 8% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter profit after the company wrote down the value of an investment and reported flat sales that missed Wall Street's expectations. McKesson said its profit decreased to $281 million, or $1.01 a share, from $307 million, or $1.05, a year earlier. The latest quarter includes a charge of $59 million, or 22 cents a share, to write down the value of its investment in Parata Systems and a tax-related gain of $22 million, or 8 cents.

McKesson Corp. said Thursday that it is selling about a fifth of the stock in Armor All Products Corp. to the public so it can concentrate on its main business of distributing drugs to pharmacies. Only 17% of Armor All's 21 million shares are publicly traded now; McKesson, based in San Francisco, owns the rest. With another 4.5 million shares, or 22% of the total, on the market, McKesson said, buying and selling the stock will be easier for investors.

McKesson Corp., the biggest U.S. drug distributor, said fiscal second-quarter profit increased 32% on higher sales of medicines and healthcare information systems. Net income climbed to $327 million, or $1.17 a share, from $247 million, or 83 cents, a year earlier, San Francisco-based McKesson said. It attributed earnings of 27 cents a share to the release of a $76-million tax reserve. Earnings excluding special items missed analysts' estimates. Revenue for the three months ended Sept.

McKesson Corp., the biggest U.S. drug wholesaler, won the first stage of a lawsuit that accused TriZetto Group Inc. of infringing a 1993 patent for software that detects fraudulent billing. A Wilmington, Del., jury found that TriZetto violated the patent, paving the way for a second trial to determine damages the Newport Beach-based company must pay to San Francisco-based McKesson.

John Hammergren, chairman of San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., received compensation valued at $22.6 million for guiding the nation's largest prescription drug distributor to a record profit in its last fiscal year. Hammergren's package, disclosed in a regulatory filing, included $11 million in bonuses and a $1.37-million salary. He also was awarded stock options and restricted stock that had an estimated value of $9.65 million when they were granted.

A federal judge ruled that consumers and other parties who sued McKesson Corp., the biggest U.S. drug distributor, may pursue their claims of inflated prices as a group, a law firm for the class said. Consumers and third-party payers had claimed in a 2006 complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, that San Francisco-based McKesson had entered into a secret agreement to inflate the reported "average wholesale price" of thousands of drugs.

McKesson Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to acquire AmeriSource Health Corp., a rival distributor of pharmaceuticals and medical products, for $1.7 billion in stock, plus debt. The merger would keep McKesson on top of the $65-billion U.S. wholesale drug market, a post threatened by last month's news of the $2.8-billion merger of Cardinal Health Inc. and Bergen Brunswig Corp., analysts said.

McKesson Corp., the biggest U.S. drug wholesaler, won a judge's preliminary approval for a $960-million settlement aimed at resolving investor lawsuits over the company's 1999 earnings restatement. U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose rebuffed objections from Bear Stearns Cos., another defendant in the suits, according to an order filed Sept. 8. The accord reached in January must win final approval before payouts can begin. The settlement would be the sixth-largest in U.S.

McKesson Corp.'s fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 19% because of strong sales in its drug distribution and technology units. The San Francisco-based company said Monday that it earned $307 million, or $1.05 a share, compared with $257 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier. Quarterly revenue rose 9% to $26.23 billion. Excluding special costs related to litigation, the nation's largest prescription drug distributor earned $1.04 a share in the quarter ended March 31. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings of $1 a share.

Drug distributor McKesson Corp. said that two computers containing confidential patient data were stolen from the company July 18. The computers contained data on thousands of participants in a program that McKesson administers to help supply drugs to low-income patients, spokesman James Larkin said. He declined to say which health-care firm had hired McKesson to run the program or whether the data were encrypted.

A federal judge ruled that consumers and other parties who sued McKesson Corp., the biggest U.S. drug distributor, may pursue their claims of inflated prices as a group, a law firm for the class said. Consumers and third-party payers had claimed in a 2006 complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, that San Francisco-based McKesson had entered into a secret agreement to inflate the reported "average wholesale price" of thousands of drugs.

John Hammergren, chairman of San Francisco-based McKesson Corp., received compensation valued at $22.6 million for guiding the nation's largest prescription drug distributor to a record profit in its last fiscal year. Hammergren's package, disclosed in a regulatory filing, included $11 million in bonuses and a $1.37-million salary. He also was awarded stock options and restricted stock that had an estimated value of $9.65 million when they were granted.

McKesson Corp.'s profit climbed 17% in its fiscal fourth quarter to top analysts' expectations, capping a year of robust growth at the nation's largest distributor of prescription drugs. The San Francisco-based company said it earned $257 million, or 85 cents a share, for the three months ended in March. That compared with net income of $220 million, or 70 cents, a year earlier. Revenue totaled $24.2 billion, a 2% increase.

* McKesson Corp. investors won final approval of a $72.5-million settlement of claims against accounting firm Arthur Andersen, which shareholders said helped perpetrate a fraud that led to an $8.6-billion drop in McKesson's market value. * A federal judge signed off on a restitution agreement requiring Sanjay Kumar, former chief executive of Computer Associates International Inc.

Former McKesson Corp. finance chief Richard Hawkins was found not guilty of fraud charges related to a 1999 restatement that sparked an $8.6-billion drop in McKesson's stock market value. U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins, in a ruling issued in San Francisco, cleared Hawkins on charges of securities and wire fraud and making false statements. The trial, which was held without a jury, ended in March.

McKesson Corp., the largest distributor of pharmaceutical and health-care products in North America, said it named Mark Pulido to succeed Alan Seelenfreund as chief executive on April 1. Pulido, 44, is president and chief operating officer. He joined McKesson in May from Novartis unit Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp., where he was president and chief executive. Seelenfreund, 60, will remain chairman of San Francisco-based McKesson. He has been chairman and CEO since November 1989.

McKesson Corp. reported Thursday that its fiscal third-quarter profit surged 26%, beating analyst expectations. The San Francisco-based prescription drug distributor said it earned $243 million, or 80 cents a share, during 2006's final three months. That compared with net income of $193 million, or 61 cents, during the same period in 2005.

Drug wholesaler McKesson Corp. won an 82% reduction of a $19-million jury verdict that resulted from an employee's lawsuit for wrongful termination. San Francisco-based McKesson must now pay $3.41 million ($1.41 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages), a California appeals court in Sacramento said in a ruling filed Tuesday. The company also must pay the employee's lawyer fees.