Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW!: Wisconsinites traveling to D.C. to oppose Express Scripts/Medco merger

Contact: Scott Tyre

Styre@capitolnavigators.com

WI– Just days before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will convene a hearing to investigate the proposed merger between Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc, local business, independent Pharmacist, and consumers with the Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW! (PCPAN) coalition are traveling to Washington, D.C. to express their concerns in an effort to stop the deal.

Last July, the two pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) announced a $29 billion merger agreement that could take effect as soon as early 2012. An approved merger would combine two of the nation’s three largest PBMs, giving the consolidated mega-PBM the unfettered ability to increase prices and reduce access to pharmacy services. Elected officials including attorneys general in dozens of states, pharmacy service providers, consumer advocates, patient advocates and others, have expressed concerns that approving this merger would result in increased costs for lesser quality health care.

These Wisconsin residents hope that it will be stopped.

Local PCPAN members traveling to D.C. include: Mike Dow, Independent Pharmacist and volunteer at a nonprofit healthcare clinic, Joe Wineke, former Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and Matt Mabie, owner of MD Hometown Pharmacies.

Members of the delegation are available to discuss their upcoming trip to Washington. To schedule an interview, please contact Scott Tyre at styre@capitolnavigators.com

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Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW! is a coalition of consumers, businesses and community-based pharmacists from across the country that have come together for the purpose of opposing the planned merger between Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc. PCPAN is a project of Pharmacy Choice and Access Now.