Medco, Sweden's Apoteket Develop Prescription Safety Program

First Centralized International Drug Utilization Review Program to Help Prevent Medication Errors at Sweden's Retail Pharmacies

FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey and STOCKHOLM, January 7 - Apoteket, Sweden's largest pharmacy chain, and Medco Health Solutions,
Inc. (NYSE: MHS) today announced that it has developed one of the first
national centralized drug utilization review (DUR) programs outside of the
United States to improve prescription safety by reducing adverse drug events
and thereby reducing the risk of costly hospitalizations.

The system, called Elektroniskt ExpeditionsStod (EES), will be owned and
operated by Apotekens Service AB, a national pharmacy infrastructure supplier
for the Swedish health care system. The system was integrated into ten
pharmacies in mid-October and will be available to all pharmacy locations
throughout Sweden in early 2010. Medco partnered with Apoteket to develop the
system and will have an ongoing role in supporting the national program.

Localized DUR systems are commonplace in most European pharmacies. Medco,
which has one of the most sophisticated drug safety systems in the world, has
adapted and reengineered its system with Apoteket to develop a leading edge
system that warns pharmacists about potential safety issues within the
patient's complete medication history across all pharmacies and prescribers.
Medco customized the clinical safety system to incorporate drugs and clinical
guidelines available in Sweden.

"Medco has developed exceptional patient safety protocols at all stages
of pharmacy care and this initiative shows how we can leverage our U.S.
innovations to improve patient safety and healthcare systems," said John
Driscoll, Medco president for New Markets. "We shared our best practices and
adapted operational capabilities to enhance Sweden's pharmacy care model,
which we know will save lives."

Each time a prescription is ordered in Sweden and patient consent is
obtained, it will undergo an automatic rules-driven review that examines a
patient's history to identify any potential danger of the new prescription
interacting with other medications or aggravating existing medical
conditions. It is estimated that 30 percent of emergency care visits and 10
percent of all hospital admissions in Sweden are the result of inappropriate
or unforeseen drug related interaction.

"A DUR system is crucial to identifying potential adverse drug events in
health care that lead to so many hospitalizations," said Erik Thorsell,
Apoteket's executive for quality assurance. "By adopting innovations and
promoting collaborative pharmacy practice, we're doing our part to keep our
customers safe and ensure they get the best care. The technology available is
a great safety net to reduce adverse drug events, especially when patients
are getting prescriptions from more than one doctor or pharmacy. This becomes
more important in Sweden as we deregulate and expand the market with more
choices of local pharmacies."

During the current pilot phase, the prescription drug review has led to a
dialogue between the pharmacist and the patient more than one-third of the
time and numerous prescriptions have either been cancelled by the prescribing
physician, dosages were lowered or the original prescription was changed to a
different drug.

"Medco's goal in the U.S. and abroad is to advance and improve the value
of clinical pharmacy," Driscoll added.

EES enhances safety features that are provided by electronic prescribing,
a proven approach to eliminating errors associated with handwritten
prescriptions. Sweden leads Europe in the adoption of e-Prescribing with
approximately 80 percent of all prescriptions in the country being ordered
electronically by physicians.

"The Elektroniskt ExpeditionsStod will contribute substantially to
diminishing unnecessary drug-related side effects, as well as help decrease
drug costs," said Professor Yngve Gustafson, M.D., PhD. "Most importantly,
EES will help prevent unnecessary hospitalizations due to inappropriate
dosage or drug, therapy duplication, and drug-drug interactions. In addition,
EES could, over time, increase the physicians' knowledge on drug treatment
and consequently increase quality of care for patients, especially the
elderly."

Gustafson added, "This system, once fully operational across all
pharmacies in Sweden, will be of great societal benefit. In the future, it is
our hope that it will also be fully integrated into our electronic
prescribing systems used by physicians to aid in the decrease of prescription
drug abuse."

Deregulation of Sweden's pharmacy market in July 2009 opened itself to
competition from new entrants beginning in the fall of 2009. The utilization
review system will become part of the common high-technology infrastructure
used by all of Sweden's retail pharmacies. This would ensure comprehensive,
uniform and consistent reviews of each prescription, for all patients,
independent of which pharmacy is used to dispense the medicine.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed and this
transaction is not expected to have a material impact on Medco's earnings or
results of operations. Medco's other international operations include a
majority stake in Europa Apotheek, a clinical services pharmacy serving the
German and Dutch markets, and Medco's joint venture in pharmacy/home health
care in the United Kingdom with United Drug plc.

About Medco

Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: MHS) is pioneering the world's most
advanced pharmacy(R) and its clinical research and innovations are part of
Medco making medicine smarter(TM) for more than 60 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
2008 revenue exceeding US$51 billion, Medco ranks 45th 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.

Media: Ann Smith, +1-201-269-5984, Ann_Smith at medco.com, Investors: Valerie Haertel, +1-201-269-5781, valerie_haertel at medco.com