Medco

Medco Health Solutions Inc. defended itself against a new charge that it had paid kickbacks to win a contract to provide pharmacy services to Medicare beneficiaries and federal employees. The company said its contracts with Oxford Health Plans Inc. were legal and proper, despite a new Justice Department allegation Tuesday that Medco made $87.4 million in improper payments to win business. Medco acts as a middleman between drug makers and insurers trying to lower the costs of prescription drugs.

Merck & Co. plans to sell part of its Medco pharmacy business to the public as the second-biggest U.S. pharmaceutical company concentrates on higher-margin prescription drugs. Analysts estimate all of Medco could sell for $6 billion to $15billion. Merck paid $6 billion in 1993 for the pharmacy business, which acts as a middleman between drug makers and health-care insurance plans. Merck yielded to shareholder pressure to sell Medco years after Eli Lilly & Co.

Express Scripts Inc. on Monday completed its acquisition of rival Medco Health Solutions Inc. in a $29.1-billion deal that could have major implications for Walgreen Co. The deal was announced after the Federal Trade Commission gave its formal approval after an eight-month antitrust investigation of whether the merger would hurt competition in the pharmacy benefits management sector. Pharmacy benefits management companies administer prescription-drug insurance coverage for employers and insurers.

With a string of corporate accounting scandals sapping demand for new stocks, drug maker Merck & Co. (MRK) on Friday lowered the price range for the initial public offering of its Medco Health Solutions unit to $20 to $22 apiece from $22 to $24. The new range for the 46.7 million shares was officially disclosed for the first time in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, although sources close to the deal preempted the revision last month.

Drug giant Merck & Co. said the planned spinoff of its Medco Health Solutions Inc. subsidiary to shareholders should happen this summer. Merck, which said in April that it would jettison Medco, on Wednesday filed details of the deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction is expected to be tax-free to Merck holders. Medco is a pharmacy benefits management firm that develops prescription benefit programs for employers and runs a mail-order and online pharmacy.

Pharmacy benefit manager Merck-Medco will open the world's largest automated pharmacy today--a seven-acre building in Willingboro, N.J., where workers and state-of-the-art equipment can fill as many as 6,700 prescriptions an hour. The facility is the size of six football fields. It is expected to employ 800 pharmacists, technicians and other workers, with an annual payroll of $35 million by early 2003.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co.'s deal Tuesday with European pharmaceutical, health and beauty giant Alliance Boots is one best described with words such as “largest,” “biggest” and “most.” Walgreens, the biggest U.S. player in its sector, is spending $6.7 billion in a cash and stock deal to buy a 45% stake in Boots, the market leader across the Atlantic. Boots had been purchased in 2007 for what was then $22 billion - still the largest leveraged buyout ever in Europe - by its largest shareholder along with an equity firm.

In a case that could alter how prescriptions are filled, the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager said Monday that it would pay $29 million to settle allegations by 20 states, including California, that it pressured doctors to switch patients' medications to benefit its bottom line. Medco Health Solutions Inc.

Medco Health Solutions Inc., one of the nation's biggest pharmacy benefits managers, said Wednesday that it would buy Accredo Health Inc., a distributor of specialty drugs and services, in a $2.2-billion cash and stock deal to create the nation's largest specialty pharmacy business. The companies expect to generate more than $4 billion in annual revenue from their combined specialty drug businesses.

Medco Health Solutions Inc., a pharmacy-benefit manager, said Friday that two California pharmacies were suing the company and its former parent, Merck & Co., alleging anti-competitive practices including price fixing. The suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, accuses Medco of setting prices above competitive levels and giving preferential treatment to Merck drugs, according to a Medco filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.