Jake Berzon

8 Possible Targets for Exxon's Cash

Exxon will probably acquire something strategically. Chesapeake Energy on the surface looks like a good candidate, but Exxon has for years been replenishing the oil reserves they use up with natural gas reserves and Chesapeake is not cheap enough to make up for their poor financial health. It is more likely that they go for somebody who controls oil reserves, or make a play for something green (if they can find something big enough, promising enough and viable enough).

How Will Fortune Magazine's 10 Stock Picks for 2009 Fare?

I have received the following email from Medco's VP of Corporate Communications, Lowell Weiner. I am posting it here with Lowell's permission. I hope that some of my readers will find it useful.


Dear Mr. Berzon:

I am responding to the comments in your article, "How Will Fortune Magazine's 10 Stock Picks for 2009 Fare" that recently appeared on the Seeking Alpha site.



I am compelled to respond to your recent characterization of our business as a "middleman" that primarily is engaged in negotiating discounts with pharmaceutical companies. That definition of our business is as outdated as referring to General Electric as "the light bulb company."

It is true that our clients expect us to help their employees, retirees and dependents obtain the prescription drugs they need at the lowest possible cost. But that is just part of what we do.

Medco is the world’s most advanced pharmacy, making a difference in the health of millions of Americans every day:

Ø Safely dispensing more than 100 million prescriptions in 2008 with Six Sigma dispensing quality.
Ø Monitoring prescriptions and sending millions of communications annually to physicians and patients, alerting them to the dangers of potentially harmful drug interactions.

Ø Encouraging patients to adhere to their prescribed therapy. Approximately 50 percent of patients with a chronic or complex medical condition who start on a new medicine abandon that therapy within the first year, risking more serious medical complications.

Ø Serving our patients with more than 2,000 specialist pharmacists who are trained in specific conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and asthma, among others, and are available to our patients at any time of the day or night.

Ø Managing the clinical care for patients under treatment for complex diseases and reliant on an array of medicines, including biotech agents, that often have extremely high costs and require advanced handling and administration. We provide pharmacy and nursing assistance.

Additionally, Medco is leading in the emerging field of personalized medicine – the use of genetic tests that guide a physician in selecting the medicine and dose unique to that patient’s need. We are working to develop and distribute new tests that improve physician prescribing and clinical outcomes.

Through these efforts we have grown our business and earned the trust and loyalty of our clients and patients. We were ranked by Fortune as America's Most Admired company in our industry, and outside of our industry we placed third only to Apple and Nike as Most Admired for Innovation across all companies.

We are proud that our clinical focus improves the health of so many Americans.

Sincerely,

Lowell Weiner
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Medco Health Solutions