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Merck - Medco

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Merck-Medco 1. Pharmacy Benefit Management Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are companies that administer drug benefit programs for employers and health insurance carriers. PBMs contract with managed care organizations, self-insured employers, insurance companies, unions, Medicaid and Medicare managed care plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and other federal, state, and local government entities to provide managed prescription drug benefits. They designed the pharmacy benefit plan, processed prescription drug claims, reviewed prescriptions, encouraged the use of lower cost, generic and branded drugs and dispensed drugs through mail service pharmacies. Essentially, PBMs reduced the cost of health care by improving …show more content…

If so happened Medco would lose the competitive advantage that Merck saw and the deal would fail. Also Merck had not analyzed what if other companies got into same vertical integration with other PBMs creating a price competition. Alternative: Instead of acquiring Medco, Merck could have tried to work out the same relationship by entering into alliance with Medco. It could still enter the formulary of Medco without paying $6 billion. Merck was hoping the deal will yield crucial market intelligence about Medco's 33 million U.S. customers. the detailed information Merck would gain from Medco's enormous customer base could help aid efforts to research and market new products. Alternative: Merck might have consider some alternative ways like Walsh America/PMSI already provide similarly useful information without spending $6 billion to get it. 4. Merck-Medco † Value Drive: The Medco acquisition was the consequence of a study initiated in 1992 by Merck to examine the role of pharmaceuticals in the larger context of health care. Merck realized that drug companies had to view themselves as health care solution providers rather than as suppliers of medicines. Merck also realized that drugs were becoming commodities due to generics and HMOs. Merck felt that the acquisition of a PBM would provide access to key players in the health care industry such as physicians, employers, pharmacists and patients. The huge amounts of drug

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