Prime Therapeutics Completes $1.35B Deal to Acquire Magellan Rx
Magellan Rx's businesses includes a 1.7-million member PBM. The deal is struck amid a long-time trend toward consolidation in the pharmacy benefit management industry.
Prime Therapeutics, the Minnesota-based pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), announced today that it had finalized its acquisition of Magellan Rx Management from Centene.
The PBM announced in May that it was buying the pharmacy division of Magellan for $1.35 billion and today’s announcement also used that figure.
Centene, a dominant company in Medicaid managed care, acquired Magellan Health in January for $2.2 billion but has been selling off chunks of the parent company since. In addition to selling Magellan Rx to Prime Therapeutics, St. Louis-based Centene announced in November that it was selling Magellan Specialty Health to Evolent Health and would receive a total of $750 million the from the deal.
In today’s press release, Prime described the Magellan Rx as a specialty drug management business and a full-service PBM with 1.7 million members. Magellan Rx also has a large Medicaid pharmacy business
Centene’s press release in November announcing the deal with Evolent described Magellan Specialty Health as a “specialty benefit management organization that offers industry-leading utilization management solution.”
The PBM industry has become increasingly consolidated with about three-quarters of the business controlled by Express Scripts, Optum Rx and CVS Caremark. In 2019, Prime entered into three-year “collaboration” with Express Scripts.
Mostafa Kamal will remain CEO of Magellan Rx Management after its acquisition today by Prime Therapeutics.
When it announced the Magellan Rx acquisition in May, Prime said Magellan Rx would operate as a stand-alone business for the foreseeable future. Today’s announcement reiterated that asserition and mentioned that Mostafa Kamal will continue as Magellan Rx CEO and be part of Prime's executive leadership team. According to Kamal’s LinkedIn profile he has been CEO of Magellan Rx for seven years.
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