Content about Express Scripts

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A number of members of Congress have raised questions about the proposed merger between pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, prompting a lobbying group that represents independent pharmacies and opposes the merger to highlight the matter.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — It's been another busy week on the Walgreens/Express Scripts front as an arbiter ruled against preliminary injunctive relief in time for the 2012 Medicare open enrollment period, which actually started last week. What's more, other parties are beginning to weigh in on the dispute, notably in favor of Walgreens.

(THE NEWS: Preliminary injunctive relief denied in WAG/ESI dispute. For the full story, click here.)

WASHINGTON — The Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW! coalition on Wednesday announced its opposition to the proposed merger between Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions.

"The merger between two of these middlemen, which could go into effect as soon as early 2012, would create a mega-pharmacy benefit management company with excessive control over the health care of tens-of-millions of Americans. This would limit our access to and choice of pharmacies," the coalition stated.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — In an effort to continue serving the U.S. Department of Defense's Tricare pharmacy program in 2012, Walgreens has offered a new proposal to Express Scripts.

In what it calls "an ironclad guarantee," Walgreens said that the drug store chain's prices would match or beat the average costs per adjusted prescription of all other pharmacies in the Tricare network. Walgreens added that it will produce savings for the program "without disrupting beneficiaries’ choice of a network pharmacy provider."

At press time, the industry was weighing the potential merger of pharmacy benefit manager rivals Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, but executives at CVS Caremark remain more confident than ever that its PBM business is ideally positioned to “effectively compete,” regardless of what federal trade regulators decide for ESI-Medco. And there’s good reason why.


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — MMM Healthcare and PMC Medicare Choice on Friday announced that MMM and PMC members will continue to have access to the Walgreens pharmacy network. Walgreens and Express Scripts have reached an agreement specifically regarding these plans in Puerto Rico, according to a Walgreens spokesperson.

ST. LOUIS — Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts has launched a suite of services for drug makers through HealthBridge Pharma & Biotech to provide a single-solution approach to patient care.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has launched a new drive-time radio advertisement in the Washington, D.C., market to warn of the potential consequences of the proposed merger between pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Medco.

WASHINGTON — Only one stakeholder stands to gain from the proposed merger of Express Scripts and Medco — and that would be the new “mega PBM” the deal would create, not payers, and definitely not patients, either.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has launched a new drive-time radio advertisement in the Washington, D.C., market to warn of the potential consequences of the proposed merger between pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Medco.

(Listen to the radio ad here)

ST. LOUIS — Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts will provide services for patients using a drug to manage a debilitating side effect of many anti-cancer treatments, ESI said.

CHICAGO — Walgreens on Thursday morning argued for its motion to stay an Express Scripts suit filed against the Chicago-based pharmacy on Sept. 7, pending arbitration.

In its lawsuit, Express Scripts contends that Walgreens is actively recruiting patients and seeks immediate relief from Walgreens' informing patients that the company's 7,760 stores will not be part of the Express Scripts pharmacy network at the top of the year.