Drugstore.com forges alliance with Medco

Chain Drug Review, Nov 24, 2008

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- A new partnership between drugstore.com and Medco Health Solutions Inc. will allow the pharmacy benefits manager to offer its members access to the online retailer's nonprescription consumer health care products. The agreement, which will also give Medco members access to drugstore.com's over-the-counter medicine offerings, is expected to begin in the middle of next year.

"We look forward to developing this exciting new offering with Medco," declares drugstore.com chief executive officer and chairman Dawn Lepore. "The alliance supports our strategy to leverage the drugstore.com e-commerce health, beauty and wellness platform and to extend our leadership in consumer health merchandising, marketing, fulfillment and customer care."

Technical development and operation services, consumer health products and O-T-C merchandising, fulfillment capabilities and customer care for the nonprescription drug offerings will be provided to the Medco branded online store by drugstore.com.

"We envision that this collaboration will, over time, enable Medco to efficiently develop and deliver a broad spectrum of new consumer brand products and services that complement our prescription drug expertise and extend the continuum of care for the approximately one in five Americans we serve," says John Driscoll, president of Medco's new markets division.