SXC Health Solutions Corp.’s (SXCI) acquisition of fellow pharmacy-benefit manager Catalyst Health Solutions hasn’t hampered the company’s ability to compete for business, SXC Chief Executive Mark Thierer said.
Mergers between pharmacy-benefit managers, known as PBMs, can sometimes prove disruptive for the health plans and companies that hire them to manage drug benefits. Though SXC and Catalyst closed their deal just last week, Mr. Thierer said he anticipates the newly combined company will continue to win new business.
“I’m actually wildly optimistic” about the current selling season for 2013, which runs until early autumn, the CEO said in an interview. The company is rolling out a new name Tuesday–Catamaran Corp.–and will start trading Wednesday under the ticker symbol CTRX.
“We’ve already had some wins,” Mr. Thierer added, such as a three-year contract with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island disclosed in February. “Business is moving.”
He said there has been a much higher-than-normal level of PBM clients putting out requests for proposals, a trend also highlighted recently by other industry executives and consultants. While all these requests don’t automatically mean clients will change hands–some may be testing the waters, but could re-sign with their current benefit manager, consultants have said–Mr. Thierer said he sees opportunity in the commotion.
He chalked up the busy selling season to a handful of factors that have caused PBM clients to survey their options, including the fractured relationship between big PBM Express Scripts Holding Co. (ESRX) and drugstore Walgreen Co. (WAG). Express Scripts is also coming off a large transaction–in April it closed on its purchase of Medco Health Solutions to create the industry’s largest company.
“The big dislocations happening in the industry right now have driven so many opportunities,” Mr. Thierer said. Both SXC and Catalyst have pipelines of new business activity–meaning requests to which they are responding that could turn into new business–that are two or three times bigger than what either company has ever seen before, he added.
via SXC Health CEO: Catalyst Deal Hasn’t Hurt Chances for New Sales – WSJ.com.