Caremark International Inc., which was once sole U.S. distributor of the schizophrenia drug Clozaril, agreed to sell its remaining share of the business to Health Management Inc. for $34 million.
Clozaril, a drug of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp., was introduced in the U.S. in 1990. Because the drug can cause potentially fatal depletion of white blood cells, Sandoz hired Deerfield-based Baxter International Inc., of which Caremark was then a part, under a highly profitable exclusive agreement to distribute the drug and monitor blood levels of 6,000 patients weekly. The exclusivity was rescinded when many states challenged it as anti-competitive. Revenues in 1994 were $50 million.
C.A. Lance Piccolo, Caremark chairman and chief executive, said Clozaril’s “unique servicing and marketing requirements” no longer fit with Caremark’s other businesses.
