Founding
Express Scripts began in 1986 in St. Louis County, Missouri as a result of a joint venture between a retail chain of more than 79 pharmacies (Medicare Glaser Inc.) and Sanus Corp. Health Systems.
Sanus traces its history to Bradford Systems and Administrative Services which was founded in Boston in 1968. Bradford had a contract for computer processing of Medicare and Medicaid payments. It was acquired in 1981 by McDonnell Douglas through its McDonnell Automation Company (McAuto) subsidiary for $11.5 million.[9]
In 1983, two of McDonnell Douglas' former principals Joseph T. Lynaugh (a former director of NYC Health + Hospitals in New York City), the McAuto's project manager of the Bradford takeover,[10] and Howard L. Waltman, a long time Bradford's employee,[11] formed the Sanus Corporation with substantial investments and ownership from McDonnell Douglas, including a McDonnell Douglas whole ownership of the St. Louis office. General American Life Insurance Company invested in Sanus's future, the largest part of the funding based in New York. Sanus was a health maintenance organization and it merged with the General America Life Insurance preferred provider organization.[12] Sanus rapidly grew and by 1986 it had 200,000 clients and $100 million in revenue, operating in the St. Louis, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Washington, D.C. markets. It created a subsidiary called GenCare to fill prescriptions.
In late 1986, Sanus announced a deal with St. Louis based pharmacy Medicare-Glaser for fulfilling prescriptions. The deal was a 50-50 split ownership between Sanus and Medicare-Glaser, with the new name of Express Scripts (scripts being medical industry jargon for prescriptions). Initial plans called for Missouri and Illinois clients to get their prescriptions at the Medicare-Glaser brick and mortar pharmacies while those in other cities could get their prescriptions via mail order—an innovation at the time.[13] The initial report of the creation said that Charles H. Ridings, formerly in charge of McDonnell Douglas mergers and acquisitions, was named the first chief executive, although he was quickly replaced by Waltman.[14]
Sanus remained the dominant early insurance customer but Express Scripts began marketing to other providers. With increased investment by New York Life, Sansus change its name to NYL Cares and in 1998 was sold to Aetna for $1.05 billion.[15]
Glaser Drug Company sold its Express Scripts partnership interest back to Sanus before it was acquired by chain SupeRx in 1989 for $18.2 million. SupeRX declared bankruptcy and all stores closed in 1991 after Walgreens acquired the pharmacy records. SupeRX's loan to buy Glaser Drug Co. had been financed by Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. Morris Glaser had founded the company on October 1, 1924. In 1959, Glaser opened discount pharmacies, which would be called Medicare Pharmacy. The discount pharmacies were designed to resemble a doctor waiting room and were only about 800 to 1,000 square feet which focused just on the prescriptions. The two companies although sharing the same name operated separately, peaking at 100 stores.[16]
General America, which had been a private St. Louis-based insurance since 1933, was acquired by MetLife for $1.2 billion in 1999. General America had run into financial problems and had said it could not pay back $6.8 billion in short term bonds to investors.[17][18]
2000-2009
In 2000, the company had to write off its $165 million relationship with PlanetRx.com when the startup experienced financial difficulties.[20] In 2001, Express Scripts partnered with Merck-Medco and Advance PSC to form RxHub LLC.[20]
In 2002, Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI) acquired National Prescription Administrators, Inc. (NPA).[21]
In 2003, Express Scripts won a contract to manage the Tricare pharmacy home delivery program for the US Department of Defense; in 2008, Express Scripts won a further contract to manage all Tricare prescription services.[22]
In late December 2006, Express Scripts made a proposal to purchase Caremark. Express Scripts lost the race to acquire Caremark to CVS Corporation
2010-present
In April 2012, Express Scripts completed a $29.1 billion acquisition of Medco Health Solutions.[28] The Federal Trade Commission gave formal approval on April 2, 2012 after an anti-trust investigation.[28] The acquisition positioned Express Scripts Holding Co. as the largest pharmacy benefit manager, filling 1.4 billion annual prescriptions.[28]
In 2017, Express Scripts launched Inside Rx, a partially owned subsidiary that provides discounts on medications for the uninsured and underinsured.[29] In July 2017, Express Scripts purchased myMatrixx, a workers' compensation pharmacy benefits company based in Tampa, for $250 million.[30]
