M&a Medco

Emergency Room Care ($302 per visit and 4 visits per year (each quarter) for 20 years) = $24,160

Placed within an industry being pressured by reimbursement rates, plagued by market saturation, and in constant fear of government legislation, Walgreens is trying to pursue new avenues to promote company growth. In order to promote market share growth in New York, Walgreens acquired the drugstore chain Duane Reade in 2010 (WAG to Acquire NY Institution Duane Reade, 2010). Walgreens also recently expanded their online presence in May of 2011 with the acquisition of drugstore.com (Walgreens Co.). While Walgreens also focuses on traditional organic store growth, these actions exemplify their large focus on promoting company growth through new avenues.

Physicians were looking for assistance with HMO and PPO insurance companies and rising healthcare cost and PhyCor, Inc. was there to provide the administrative management. PhyCor, Inc. is considered a physician practice management firm, or PPM, that bought out other management firms to become one of the largest firm due to their ability to negotiate managed care contracts. What attracted physicians to PPMs was their ability to “lower cost and increase revenues” (Burns, L.R., Bradley, E.H., & Weiner, B.J., 2011). PhyCor, Inc. was able to merge large physician groups and specialty clinics creating revenue in the millions, and continued to grow. They grew for several years before the values in stock starting falling, unsatisfied physicians, and

Unlike insurers, HMOs provide care directly to patients; HMOs were viewed as low-cost alternatives to hospitals and private doctors. In 1997 approximately 651 HMOs provided care to 66.8 million people.

From a strategic perspective, in order to address its organizational needs, EMC stands a better chance if anchored to a larger, more financially and structurally sound medical entity through the option of a merger. Benefits would include gaining increased bargaining power, the improved ability to retain its best and brightest, a “longer reach” in attracting quality personnel from all around the state or the country at large and a better position from which to compete for customers.

Pfizer is the largest American pharmaceutical company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It competes with Merck and Glaxo, and markets such well-known medications as Celebrex and Viagra. However, the pharmaceutical industry as a whole has undergone changes in recent years with significant consolidation taking place and with increased scrutiny regarding the ways in which drugs are developed, tested and marketed. In addition, recent controversies have erupted regarding Merck's drug Vioxx, and Pfizer has been the target of unwanted publicity regarding its painkiller Celebrex. This research considers the strategic position of Pfizer, including its strengths and weaknesses as well

A merger is a partial or total combination of two separate business firms and forming of a new one. There are predominantly two kinds of mergers: partial and complete. Partial merger usually involves the combination of joint ventures and inter-corporate stock purchases. Complete mergers are results in blending of identities and the creation of a single succeeding firm. (Hicks, 2012, p 491). Mergers in the healthcare sector, particularly horizontal hospital mergers wherein two or more hospitals merge into a single corporation, are increasing both in frequency and importance. (Gaughan, 2002). This paper is an attempt to study the impact of the merger of two competing healthcare organization and will also attempt to propose appropriate

Current Industry. The retail drug industry’s 2010 combined annual revenue was $277 billion, according to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (Drug Store Industry…, 2011, par. 4).The big players in this industry are CVS Caremark, Corp. Walgreen Co., and Rite-Aid, Corp with Wal-Mart and Target developing more of a presence in recent years. According to the article, the drug store industry is very concentrated with the 50 largest companies generating about 70 percent of the industries revenue (Drug Store Industry…, 2011, par. 4). The industry had grown substantially in the last 50 years and will continue to innovate and develop well into the near future.

By 2006 there were only three major health care distributors, Cardinal, Amerisource, and McKesson, all offering the same products and services (Pearce, 2011). But, Cardinal stood far apart from its competition because a larger percentage of their overall operating income came from non-distribution activities. Their portfolio was diversified into distributing pharmaceuticals, packaging them, providing devices to hospitals that automate dispensing of drugs through their Pyxis subsidiary and providing pharmacy services through Medicine Shoppe (Pearce, 2011).

According to Rusli, the merger would create more in-store traffic for CVS and increase both companies’ consumer base. This merger gave CVS the opportunity to expand both its own small pharmacy benefits manager business and mail order business. CVS’s opportunity to take advantage of Caremark’s pharmacy benefits manager business allowed it to take advantage of the mail order business as well that had begun cutting into drug stores’ revenue (Rusli, 2013). By providing its customers with a unique set of services and gaining the market power to control costs, CVS Caremark gained a competitive advantage. Unless competitors like Walgreens and Rite Aid find a way to respond to CVS Caremark’s strategy, it will be difficult to remain competitive with this firm for long. Overall, the merger was a great strategic move on behalf of both organizations, which helped ensure the current success of CVS Caremark.

While some have identified Merck as a visionary company dedicated to a "core values and a sense of purpose beyond just making money" (Collins & Porras, 2002, p. 48), others point out corporate misdeeds perpetrated by Merck (e.g., its role in establishing a dubious medical journal that republished articles favorable to Merck products) as contradictory

Merck has initiated towards combining functional departments with a core cross-functional structure that focused on strategies and implementation. For instance, Ray Gilmartin established the Worldwide Business Strategy Teams (WBST) in 1995. The WBST, which consisted of 12 or 15 members from the US Human Health, marketing and MRL’s internal group, focused on managing, improving efforts and coordinating therapeutic franchises worldwide. Cross-functional groups can promote resources for category drugs, decide if marketable drug be evaluated in Phase V studies, look at possible impact sales and push for initiatives. If cross-functional groups are designed and perform correctly, then they will be

Merck was one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. • Merck was about to lose patent protection of two of its best selling drugs, which had been a significant part of their $2 billion annual sales. • Merck began putting millions of dollars into research (up to $1 billion) and within three years, Merck was able to discover four powerful medications. • Profits weren’t all that Merck cared about; Merck’s founder believed that “medicine is for people. It is not for the profits.” • He also believed that following the “medicine is for people” philosophy would lead to profits and had yet to fail.• River Blindness is caused by parasitic worms, which can be found in

The costs of capital and capital structures for Pfizer Inc. and its two competitors Merck & Co. Inc. and Johnson & Johnson in the pharmaceutical industry are analyzed in this memo.

Introduction AstraZeneca PLC (AstraZeneca, AZN:NYSE, AZN:LSE) is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of Sweden’s Astra AB and UK’s Zeneca Group plc. Core Activities AstraZeneca is engaged in the discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and biological products for important areas of healthcare: Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, Infection, Neuroscience, Oncology, and Respiratory and Inflammation. One of the key benefits of the merger between Astra and Zeneca is seen as their portfolio of new products in development: AstraZeneca call this their 'product pipeline'.