Medco International Assumes Full Ownership/Control of Pan-European Healthcare Venture

AMSTERDAM, October 3, 2011 -

 ”In acquiring full interest in the venture, we will sharpen our focus, expand our service offerings and speed our solutions to the market.”

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) will assume full ownership and operational control of a pan-European healthcare venture launched in 2010 in collaboration with Celesio AG - advancing its ability to deliver innovative healthcare solutions focused on patients with chronic and complex conditions and helping to ease the growing cost burden on payors.

(Logo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100609/MEDCOLOGO )

Celesio earlier today announced its agreement to sell its 50 percent interest in the joint venture to Medco.   The transition to the new organizational structure, which is effective September 30th, is designed to be seamless to their clients.  Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Our start-up year has confirmed both the need and the potential to develop and deliver new healthcare solutions with the goal of improving patient health and relieving the financial burden on payors across Europe,” said Brian Griffin, who leads Medco’s international organization, which is headquartered in the Netherlands.  “In acquiring full interest in the venture, we will sharpen our focus, expand our service offerings and speed our solutions to the market.”

In support of the organization, Medco’s European-based mail order pharmacy, Europa Apotheek Venlo, will become a part of Medco’s international business. 

Medco’s international organization offers its clients innovative, integrated clinical services that are designed to improve patient adherence, integrate care across multiple providers, enhance safety and deliver greater value across the healthcare system.

At launch, the international business began offering a suite of services primarily focused on three areas: Advanced clinical solutions to identify and correct clinical issues and monitor healthcare programs for effectiveness; personalized care services addressing new “specialty” and “biotech” medicines, which are expensive, difficult to administer and often require special handling; and providing a modern and efficient delivery network  with convenient mail-order pharmacies and complementary retail services, in-home nursing assistance and telephone counseling services.

“In our first year we realized that the requirement - and, commensurately, our opportunity — is far greater than even we had anticipated.  As a result, we are already moving on plans to customize an extended suite of Medco’s advanced capabilities to meet the needs of our clients across Europe, accelerating our ability to offer a broader range of services,” Griffin added.

About Medco

Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS) is pioneering the world‘s most advanced pharmacy® and its clinical research and innovations are part of Medco making medicine smarter™ for more than 65 million members.

With more than 20,000 employees dedicated to improving patient health and reducing costs for a wide range of public and private sector clients, and 2010 revenues of $66 billion, Medco ranks 34th on the Fortune 500 list and is named among the world’s most innovative, most admired and most trustworthy companies. 

For more information, go to www.medcohealth.com.

This press release contains “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the risks and uncertainties that affect our business, particularly those mentioned in the Risk Factors section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lowell Weiner, +1-201-269-6986, lowell_weiner at medco.com, or Ann Smith, +1-201-269-5984, Ann_Smith at medco.com