WOONSOCKET – CVS Caremark Corp. executives will set out a plan to make a major investment in integrating the five pharmacy-benefit management (PBM) units that make up its Caremark division, the unit’s top executive said.
Although the company has not put a dollar figure on the investment yet, it will be “substantial,” Per Lofberg, president of the PBM unit since Jan. 4, told Bloomberg News.
He said the money will be used to complete the integration of the information and database systems of the five PBM operations CVS has bought in recent years – RX America LLC, bought in 2008 along with Longs Drug Stores Corp.; Caremark Rx Inc. and PharmaCare division, part of the 2007 Caremark Inc. acquisition in 2007; and PCS Health Systems Inc., along with its Advance PCS Inc. unit, purchased in 2003.
“We are just in the first inning of an important initiative for us,” he told Bloomberg last week. “I see it as a big opportunity to improve our internal processes, productivity and costs. We have a lot more work ahead.”
Helene Wolk, a New York-based analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., agreed that the effort could benefit CVS. “Caremark has kind of cobbled together the information systems of their various acquisitions,” she told Bloomberg. “There’s definitely an opportunity there. Up until now, they just haven’t chosen to address it.”
