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Express Scripts Buys ValueRx

Just over a year ago, the acquisition of managed care specialist ValueHealth by hospital giant Columbia/HCA seemed a match made in heaven--and a new way of thinking about the way to put pharmacy benefit management in context after the failed drug company acquisitions of 1993-4. Now Columbia is spinning ValueRx off. The new deal makes Express Scripts the largest independent PBM in the country and both solidifies and diversifies its customer base. But it also likely spells the end to the PBM alliances of the past several years.

Some PBM executives are asking whether Express Scripts Inc. 's $445 million acquisition of ValueRx is the beginning of a long-anticipated consolidation of the PBM industry, a consolidation that has been more talk than action since the now-ancient drug company acquisitions of 1993-1994 [See Deal]. But the deal might best be seen as the end of something quite different for the PBM industry, an end to the experimentation and mergers that have taken place over the past couple of years.

Adding ValueRx increases Express Scripts' network prescription claims by 75% and more than doubles its mail service prescriptions. In the process, Express Scripts becomes the largest independent PBM (i.e., not...

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