The transaction between UnitedHealth and Catamaran demonstrates the great upheaval taking place in the health insurance sector in the United States since the adoption of the Obamacare law (Getty / AFP / File / Joe Raedle)
In response to soaring prices of new generation of drugs, the US health insurance group UnitedHealth signed a check for nearly $ 13 billion on Monday to offer his fellow Catamaran, one of the big managers treatment of reimbursements to the United States.
UnitedHealth will marry his new take with her OptimumRX subsidiary. The merger is an attempt by the insurer to regain control deal with biotechnology companies whose therapeutic innovations revolutionizing some areas.
The prescription drug reimbursements managers help indeed employers and companies’ Medicare reimbursements to manage and control costs by negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical companies.
But the big profits UnitedHealth as his peers are becoming eroded by invoice rebates the so-called “revolutionary.” This is the case in hepatitis C in which new molecules heal better with fewer side effects than conventional products.
The expensive cost of these new molecules that block the action of proteins essential for the replication of hepatitis C, derailed health spending and limit access.
The Sovaldi and Harmoni of the US biotech Gilead Sciences are each between 84,000 and 95,000 dollars per treatment.
Express Scripts Holdings, the first company to medical prescription, decided in January not to cover these drugs it considers more expensive than that of AbbVie (Viekira Pak, 83,320 dollars treatment) newly approved by health authorities.
In France, treatment of hepatitis C have cost 650 million euros to social security in 2014. The original bill was expected to be 1.2 billion euros but an agreement on the price of Sovaldi between Gilead Sciences and the French government helped to reduce it.
“We are confident that the combination of the two companies (OptimumRX and Catamaran) will create value for health programs, government, hospital administrators and employers insured and more for individuals who depend on us for affordable pharmaceuticals, appropriate and fair, “said Larry Renfro, CEO of OptimumRX cited in a statement.
On Wall Street, the title UnitedHealth jumped 3.22% to 121.81 dollars to 2:20 p.m. GMT, while Catamaran soared 24.13% to 59.98 dollars closer to 61.50 dollars per share offered by its purchaser
-. Lower expenses –
By putting hands on Catamaran, UnitedHealth creates an entity managing a total of 1 billion prescriptions Medical on behalf of nearly one hundred million members.
Catamaran managed 400 million prescriptions (ie a five prescription in the United States) in 2014 and OptimumRX 600 million.
UnitedHealth intends to influence the new generation of drugs market which is increasing: from $ 100 billion in revenue in 2014, it is expected to rise to 400 billion in 2020, according to the insurer
The new OptimumRX-Catamaran entity should allow. offer customers improved service through the operation of demographic, UnitedHealth promises.
To do this, the group will combine the technology platform catamaran with the data and capabilities of OptumRx analysis.
The combination of the two companies should also afford to economies of scale and improve the services offered to clients.
Eventually, UnitedHealth hopes to reduce expenses by consolidating orders and administrative services.
The transaction demonstrates the large current upheaval in the health insurance sector in the United States since the adoption of the Obamacare legislation to expand access to health care for Americans.
Express Scripts with $ 1.3 billion prescriptions launched the maneuvers in 2012 by merging with Medco Health Solutions for $ 29.1 billion. The other major player in the sector, the CVS Caremark Group, has not budged for now.
Copyright © 2015 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment