Prescription for Growth

摘要

He global economy is in the dumps, and no one knows when the bears will leave Wall Street. But some things are still pretty safe bets: Aging baby boomers will keep demanding more health care, and companies will look for more ways to control the growth of medical costs-or betteryet, reduce them outright. All of which is good news for Medco Health Solutions, the largest U.S. administrator of pharmacy benefits by revenue. The Franklin Lakes, New Jersey-based company posted a very nonrecessionary 20.9 percent jump in net income last year, to $1.1 billion, on revenues that were up 15.3 percent, to $51.3 billion. Record mail-order-prescription revenue boosted results. A 15 percent increase in the price of prescription drugs also helped. Management expects profits to grow an additional 15 percent in 2009, notwithstanding the sharp decline in therneconomy. Medco has added $15 billion in new revenue in the past two years, according to CEO David Snow Jr.