Accredo Health Group, the wholly owned subsidiary of Medco Health Solutions (MHS) recently got the approval to market Rare Disease Therapeutics’ (RDT) Anascorp, an equine-derived anti-venom. Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Anascorp as the first treatment for Centruroides scorpion sting envenomation. Moreover, the agency conferred Anascorp with the orphan drug status.
With Accredo being the only specialty distributor of medication in US, Medco expects this market exclusivity of Anascorp to further boost its Specialty segment. Accredo will work as specialty wholesale distributor while offering Anascorp to hospitals and other appropriately licensed facilities. Earlier, Accredo successfully worked with Rare Disease Therapeutics for 10 years to distribute life-saving medications for rare diseases to the patients.
The Specialty Pharmacy segment of Medco was formed in 2005 following the Accredo acquisition. Presently it acquires 18.7% of total revenues. This segment includes the sale of higher margin specialty pharmacy products for the treatment of chronic and potentially life-threatening diseases. Specialty Pharmacy products typically include expensive drugs developed by biotechnology companies, often injectable and usually requiring significant amounts of ancillary administration equipment, special packaging, and higher degrees of patient-oriented customer service.
Specialty pharmacy products and services are also covered through medical benefit programs with the primary payors being insurance companies and government programs, and patients for amounts due for co-payments and deductibles. Over the past few quarters, Medco demonstrated successful performance in its Specialty business segment primarily banking on solid result from Accredo.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2011, Accredo reported revenues of $3.2 billion, up 13.2% year over year primarily due to significant growth in prescription volumes, prices of branded drugs, utilization of specialty products and the impact of recently introduced drugs. We are optimistic about the meaningful growth across a wide range of Accredo's products based on improved product and channel mix along with new client wins in the coming quarters.
Presently, we remain ‘Neutral’ on Medco.
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