Medco is one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the US and now with uniting with Celesio AG in Germany, the partnership is going to analyzed how chronic 
care patients and their respective medications are handled. Genetics will somehow enter into the picture here as well. Back in February of this year, Medco bought their own DNA company, DNA Direct.
Medco Buys DNA Direct – Genetics Healthcare Company to Incorporate Genomic Informational Algorithms
The former Associate director for genomics at the FDA went to Medco back in the middle of 2008.
Frueh Leaves FDA for Medco
The initial focus will be in Germany with moving to other countries as the year moves on. It’s been in the news quite a bit lately about selected drugs not being 
approved by the NICE European committee and perhaps the association with Medco may contribute to making some additional drugs available. I would guess additional mail order services would be needed at some point and thus a distribution center for Medco could arise or the services of Celesio would be an option.
The data base and services of Celesio with patients could make a transition to mail order prescriptions as far as having an established infrastructure, a lot easier than beginning from the ground up.
If you haven’t seen the Medco site recently, they have started an online retail business for buying non-prescription items too. With their current advertising, there’s a new star out there on the web with “Dr. Obvious”, sample video below. This is an all out war on using mail order prescriptions versus the retail drug store, due to the savings. Retail drug stores are not going away by any means and Medco does have a listing of those that participate. The sign of the future seems to indicate “you will be analyzed, and analyzed and analyzed and so on. I think shortly we should be hearing about Express Scripts, not to be outdone:)
We have “chronic analytics” for “chronic care”(grin). BD
From the Website:
“Celesio and Medco, two of the world’s leading pharmacy-driven healthcare companies, announced a joint venture on June 21, 2010 with a long-term goal of improving patient health and helping to relieve the crushing financial burden on healthcare payors across Europe.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, the 50/50 joint venture, Medco Celesio B.V., combines Medco’s and Celesio’s strengths in pharmacy-driven clinical care. Medco Celesio B.V. will focus on patients with chronic or complex conditions, such as diabetes, asthma, high-cholesterol and heart disease. It will concentrate on innovative, integrated clinical services designed to improve patient adherence, integrate care across multiple providers, enhance safety and deliver greater value across the healthcare system.”
“Our business goals are to provide our clinically-focused solutions to help alleviate the unsustainable burdens that today threaten stable healthcare systems across Europe. We will achieve this goal by providing value-added solutions and services that will improve the quality of healthcare, while reducing overall healthcare costs.”
Medco Health Solutions and European pharmacy-driven healthcare giant Celesio AG announced a joint venture focused on improving pharmacy care for patients with chronic and complex health conditions.
The joint venture will also allow both companies to accelerate their efforts to gain entry into new markets across Europe with high-growth potential.
Medco Health enters joint venture to gain entry into Europeon markets | NJ.com
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