on November 2, 2010 |
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Topics: Mergers and Acquisitions, Health Systems, Strategy
By now I'm sure you've all heard, but McKesson is set to acquire US Oncology . The deal has created a lot of buzz in the marketplace as analysts try to parse out the logic behind the deal (see here and here for analysis). McKesson has a large specialty pharmacy business, so the deal would strengthen this book of business - they've made numerous acquisitions here in the past. The interesting dimension is that, in many respects, US Oncology is a physician practice management company first. In recent years they've diversified significantly, but they do own and operate practices - a business very different from McKesson's core business, and one that doesn't necessarily have the brightest future given what's going on with medical oncology payments, particularly for chemotherapy and supportive drugs. That said, by combining US Oncology's Level I Pathways program, Innovent Oncology, with their analytics business and major market share in specialty pharma, McKesson may be seeking to corner the market in on medical oncology carve outs within ACOs. They could deploy the Innovent platform across a larger customer base and tie this into their specialty pharma business and the accompanying analytics. It's early days here, but there might be a play there.
