By December 21st the writing was on the wall. It was pretty obvious CVS/Caremark had jumped over the number one PBM in the field MedCo.....

How so?

Well, the increased ownership in Generation Health that CVS/Caremark laid down was the way.....

The newest of the benefits management companies.....this time the focus was on genetic testing benefits.

Personally, this type of company should have been formed in 2005 when Insurers were hemorrhaging cash from those BRCA tests........

But, slow and deliberate do Insurers move....

On the 21st it of December it was all but decided for MedCo. Ummm, Ummmmm, who looks like this Generation Health company?????

I knew back then and now everyone knows today.

MedCo buys DNADirect.....

In 2005 when My Partner at the time Leslie Manace went out to "see" Ryan...... In what turned to be a huge probe of Leslie by Ryan, Ryan revealed......"We are interested in PGx" Which was funny because so were we. So much so that we really thought that this was the bees knees and in fact was likely the only useful and scalable testing to come out in the next 5 years.

The DTC Genomics companies were merely a twisted dream at the time.

Well, Ryan. Our hunch paid off.

By Diversifying your DTC genetic testing company into something useful such as a GBM, you have moved shrewdly. And when the PBM leader gets trumped by CVS, you reap the rewards.

I look forward to the first quarter report from MedCo to see exactly how much they acquired you for.

I have been saying on this blog that the answer for these DTC genomics companies is to follow your lead. Now the question is, which big insurer will now but a DTC genomics company?

For MedCo, I am a little disappointed that you decided to choose the exact type of company as Caremark did. There are lots of other solutions out there. I hope you still plan on increasing your footprint in this space. Because it would be bad if CVS/Caremark continues to gobble these companies up and you end up buying the second in class.....

Not that DNADirect is second in class, but Heather Shappell et.al. ARE First Class.......

The Sherpa Says: There has got to be a way to make these companies less reliant on people. Even in the genetics testing space, there is a way to automate.