Medco Completes Acquisition of United BioSource Corporation, Creating Powerful Engine for Rapidly Advancing Clinical Insight and Innovation
FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) on Thursday completed its acquisition of United BioSource Corporation (UBC) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $730 million, creating a complementary and comprehensive research organization that extends Medco's core capabilities in data analytics and research to accelerate pharmaceutical knowledge - advancing patient safety and contributing to the body of evidence-based medicine.
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"With its global presence and emphasis on post-approval drug research that is designed to guide the safest and most efficient use of the most effective medicines, this acquisition is perfectly aligned with our broader strategy to 'make medicine smarter,'" said David B. Snow Jr., Medco chairman and CEO. "There is a large pipeline of new, complex biotechnology products -- including oncology drugs -- that will require an on-going collection of evidence in the commercial market to ensure safety, manage risk, address effectiveness and evaluate economic outcomes. These medicines are the same class of products that benefit most from specialty distribution. The combination of UBC, Accredo and our world class mail-order pharmacy positions Medco to offer unique and innovative services that offer the benefit all players in the health care system seek: getting the right medicine to the right person as efficiently as possible."
UBC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Medco that will run independently from Medco's core business to ensure compliance with contractual requirements and client expectations. Dr. Robert S. Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer and president of the Medco Research InstituteTM, will have overall responsibility for the UBC business. UBC Chief Executive Officer Ethan Leder will continue in his position, overseeing the company's current operations.
The transaction was funded with the proceeds of Medco's recently completed senior notes offering. The new business is expected to be slightly accretive to Medco shareholders in 2011, excluding one-time items and amortization.
UBC is a global scientific and medical affairs organization that partners with life science companies to deliver authoritative, real-world evidence to characterize product effectiveness, address safety risk, and demonstrate value. UBC's initiatives revolve around safety and risk management, as well as health economics and outcomes research, and have included large prospective safety studies, risk, evaluation and mitigation studies (REMS), cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness evaluations, budget-impact modeling, and epidemiologic studies among the broad suite of services that it brings to its clients. UBC has the capacity to conduct post-approval research in strategic locations worldwide including the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
About Medco
Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) is pioneering the world's most advanced pharmacy® and its clinical research and innovations are part of Medco making medicine smarterTM for approximately 65 million members.
With more than 20,000 employees dedicated to improving patient health and reducing costs for a wide range of public and private sector clients, and 2009 revenues of nearly $60 billion, Medco ranks 35th on the Fortune 500 list and is named among the world's most innovative, most admired and most trustworthy companies.
For more information, go to http://www.medcohealth.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but rather are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions and projections about the business and future events. We use words such as "anticipates," "believes," "plans," "expects," "projects," "future," "intends," "may," "will," "should," "could," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," "guidance" and similar expressions to identify these forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause Medco's actual results to differ from the results contemplated by these forward-looking statements: the risk that the businesses of UBC will not be integrated successfully; and disruption from the transaction making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers and employees. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties that affect our business described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE Medco Health Solutions, Inc.