McKesson Corp.'s chief executive rejected criticism that the drug-distribution company willfully ignored the U.S. opioid epidemic.
"That's nonsense, frankly," John Hammergren said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. He said that everyone bears responsibility for a wave of prescription-painkiller abuse that has led to a sharp increase in addiction and overdoses.
"I can't imagine any company of our size and scale, for a small amount of our business, to do something willfully and negligently to try to sell controlled substances," Hammergren said.
San Francisco-based McKesson was sued last year by a shareholder for its alleged failure to provide enough oversight of opioid-based drug shipments -- claims that the company has said are unproven. McKesson settled with the U.S. government and paid a $150 million penalty last year for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
"When you're in a disagreement with someone, at some point you have to make a decision, is it just better for me to to settle this matter and move on or is it better for me to stay here and spin our wheels," Hammergren said. "We believed investing heavily against the problem, both inside of McKesson and outside of McKesson, in terms of the larger world of this issue was a better decision."
McKesson rival Cardinal Health Inc. said on Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco that it would consider settling opioid litigation if "efficient," but that such a decision was likely a long time off.
At a presentation on Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan conference, Hammergren discussed a potential timeline for an initial public offering of Change Healthcare, a health-care information-technology company in which McKesson holds a 70 percent stake.
"It's certainly possible in 2018 and I think the question really is, it's sort of the right time will be the right time and I would hate to bound us on a 2018 or a 2019 kind of a decision," Hammergren said. "Clearly it's going to be shorter-term rather than longer-term."
Shares of McKesson, which have gained about 9 percent over the past year, were up 0.3 percent to $159.59 at 1:13 p.m. in New York.
Amid speculation that Amazon.com Inc. could enter the health care business, Hammergren said on Monday that his company already works on solving many of the same problems as the online retailer, though he said it's difficult for him to see a way in which the companies might partner.
Hammergren expressed confidence in 185-year-old McKesson's ability to compete with technology companies.
"We know the health care space and I think that our expertise in health care makes a difference and when we've come up against competitors outside of health care usually our intimate knowledge of this business over all of this time makes a difference in the competitive landscape," he said.
Business on 01/10/2018