Walgreens and Boots Pharmacy UK to Merge

[Hello2000]

Boots the biggest pharmacy in UK with about 1500 stores. Their PDM's are bad asses too, always on your back and ready to write you up for anything. Both companies are welcome to each other with their bully boy modus operandum.

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[joetrisman]

Damn

 

[joetrisman]

Walgreen pays $6.7 billion for Alliance Boots stake

U.S. drugstore chain Walgreen Co (WAG.N) is taking a 45 percent stake in European health and beauty group Alliance Boots Holdings Ltd ABN.UL for $6.7 billion in cash and stock, making a surprisingly big bet on Europe in the midst of the euro crisis.

The move will create the world's biggest buyer of prescription drugs and give both companies reach into new markets. But Walgreen shares were down 6 percent as some investors were concerned by the decision to expand in Europe.

The deal, the result of talks that began 18 months ago, marks Walgreen's first move beyond its home market and will give it more clout with drugmakers at a time it is losing sales because it no longer fills prescriptions for members of a major pharmacy benefits manager, Express Scripts Holding Co

I can see this making purchasing better but isn't the problem with profitability in retail the minimal reimbursements more than drug cost? Anyone else think that we'll see in-network and out-of-network setups coming with retail pharmacy? With United Healthcare's plans to drop Medco and do in house and with the merger of Medco with ESI, it seems United Healthcare could really benefit to align themselves with walgreens and this could easily turn into preferred pharmacy networks.

 

[pezdispenser]

It would be interesting if the merged Walgreens/Boots demands equal brand name drug acquisition costs in the US and the UK because from what I have seen, we get raped by the big pharmaceutical companies in the US. Thenagain, American consumers don't seem to mind paying more for brands...

 

[abc1234567]

I heard a similiar news today that they are buying stores overseas.
All I can say is they are spreading their venom all around the world.They started drive thru here,ruined the profession here along with other retailers ( CVS etc).Now they will do the same all over the world.

 

[fluorometholone]

"at a time it is losing sales because it no longer fills prescriptions for members of a major pharmacy benefits manager..."
I don't get it- it's not like this will give WAG more sales in the States. This article says that it will save the merged companies $1bn/year by 2016...but that Boots has something like £5bn in debt, so that doesn't really make sense either. BUT if they do start negotiating with drug manufacturers, then it could drive prices down for everyone, right? Because WAG couldn't charge $X for a box of brand name drug Y if everyone else was charging $10X.
I do have a good number of points on my Boots advantage card...so if they do merge soon, I hope I can use them in both places to get my free candy etc

 

[joetrisman]

"at a time it is losing sales because it no longer fills prescriptions for members of a major pharmacy benefits manager..."
I don't get it- it's not like this will give WAG more sales in the States. This article says that it will save the merged companies $1bn/year by 2016...but that Boots has something like £5bn in debt, so that doesn't really make sense either. BUT if they do start negotiating with drug manufacturers, then it could drive prices down for everyone, right? Because WAG couldn't charge $X for a box of brand name drug Y if everyone else was charging $10X.
I do have a good number of points on my Boots advantage card...so if they do merge soon, I hope I can use them in both places to get my free candy etc

Its about stronger negotiating power with buying drugs, not selling. This is about cutting costs, not increasing revenue.

 

[fluorometholone]

Its about stronger negotiating power with buying drugs, not selling. This is about cutting costs, not increasing revenue.

Right, well if they had been buying drug X at $50 and selling them for $70 and can knock their cost down to $30 and sell it for $60...now they're undercutting CVS, Rite Aid, everyone else...ultimately increasing revenue (to make up for lost ESI business). Kind of like how Wal-Mart has their own insulin and Ventolin I guess.

 

[Its Z]

Ehh...so Wags can't cut it in the US so they're going to spread their wings into a 2nd rate country.... good luck to Wags..

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

Ehh...so Wags can't cut it in the US so they're going to spread their wings into a 2nd rate country.... good luck to Wags..

I didn't know that the UK was a second rate country.