Horizon Pharma plc Provides Comment on Express Scripts' Business Practices

DUBLIN, IRELAND--(Marketwired - Nov 11, 2015) -  Horizon Pharma plc (NASDAQ: HZNP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients' lives by identifying, developing, acquiring and commercializing differentiated and accessible medicines that address unmet medical needs, today commented on Express Scripts' business practices.

"Our philosophy of ensuring that patients get the medicine their doctors prescribe is threatening Express Scripts' profiteering and exposing what we believe is a lack of care for patients and respect for physicians," said Timothy P. Walbert, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Horizon Pharma plc. "Express Scripts is not only a pharmacy benefit manager that has significant control over prescriptions that flow to specialty pharmacies, it also operates its own mail-order pharmacy and thus is a direct competitor of small, independent specialty pharmacies throughout the United States. This competitive role, in our view, creates a clear conflict of interest, as Express Scripts stands as both a pharmacy's overseer and competitor. In fact, Express Scripts' specialty pharmacy, Accredo Health Group, Inc., is the largest in the United States with more than 28 percent market share. Based on its Accredo ownership, it's not surprising that Express Scripts would target small, competitive independent specialty pharmacies in order to force those pharmacies from its network, attempt to dominate the U.S. specialty pharmacy medicine distribution channel and further boost its own profits at the expense of patients. As the New York Times reported on July 15, 2015, independent specialty pharmacies believe that insurers and pharmacy benefit managers funnel business to their own pharmacies, even if others may provide better service."

"Additionally, we currently have an agreement with Accredo to provide one of our important orphan medicines to patients, and contrary to the misperception that Express Scripts wishes to create, Accredo accounts for a larger percentage of our revenue than any other pharmacy. However, based on current and past business practices by Accredo and Express Scripts, including its recent $60 million fraud settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, we are re-evaluating this relationship to determine how we can most appropriately and ethically serve our patients, their physicians and our shareholders," Walbert continued.