CVS to Hire Former Eli Lilly CFO to Run Pharmacy Benefit Business

By Sharon Terlep 

CVS Health Corp. tapped a former Eli Lilly & Co. finance chief to run its pharmacy benefit business as the drugstore giant works to complete an acquisition of insurer Aetna Inc.

Longtime Eli Lilly CFO Derica Rice is set to take over CVS Caremark on March 30, according to an internal CVS memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rice will replace Jonathan Roberts, who was promoted last year to the role of chief operating officer.

"With growing concerns over the affordability of prescriptions, the role of the pharmacy benefit manager has never been more important to the healthcare system," CVS said in the memo, announcing the appointment to managers.

Pharmacy-benefit managers are middlemen in health care that help select which drugs are covered for patients and negotiate discounts with drugmakers.

CVS, with its $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, aims to create a vertical healthcare enterprise in which pharmacists are central to patient care and the company's vast network of drug stores will provide services from lab testing to infusion of specialty medications.

Mr. Rice worked at Lilly for about 27 years and served as chief financial officer from 2006 until retiring in December. He served as interim CEO at the Indianapolis drug maker for a few months in 2013 when then-CEO John Lechleiter took a medical leave.

Mr. Rice helped craft Lilly's strategy to weather a period of patent expirations for top-selling drugs that caused the company's sales to decline sharply in 2014. The company cut costs and licensed rights to new drugs to help offset some of the sales decline.

Write to Sharon Terlep at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 20, 2018 10:17 ET (14:17 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.