WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp. is exploring a potential bid for the health insurer Aetna Inc.’s pharmacy-benefit management (PBM) service, according to published reports.
Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna has been looking to sell its PBM business, which has about 11.2 million members, for a number of months, sources told The Wall Street Journal. Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates Aetna could get at least $2 billion for its PBM division, the nation’s fifth-largest with 125 million prescriptions a year.
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CVS and Medco Health Solutions Inc. are both examining a potential deal, according to both The Journal and Reuters. Aetna’s advisers also approached Express Scripts Inc., which paid $4.7 billion to buy WellPoint Inc.’s NextRx PBM service in April. The PBM industry is in the midst of a major consolidation.
A deal is not expected in the near term, however, The Journal reported.
CVS Caremark is already the largest provider of prescriptions in the U.S., with more than 1 billion orders filled annually. About 53 percent of those are handled by its PBM division, while the remainder are filled at CVS retail pharmacies.
Separately, CVS announced yesterday that Dr. Andrew J. Sussman has been named president and chief operating officer of MinuteClinic, the company’s retail health-clinic subsidiary. CVS has about 500 MinuteClinics in 25 U.S. states currently.
Sussman also was appointed CVS Caremark’s senior vice president and associate chief medical officer. He had been executive vice president and chief operating officer of UMass Memorial Medical Center, the teaching hospital of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
Sussman replaces Chip Phillips, who was appointed president of TheraCom, a CVS subsidiary that advises biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Additional information is available at CVSCaremark.com.
