St. LOUIS–Centene Corporation, a Fortune 100 and a multi-national healthcare enterprise, has made an initial investment in RxAdvance, a Massachusetts-based pharmacy benefit manager founded and led by Ravi Ika.
This partnership includes both a customer relationship and a strategic investment in RxAdvance. As part of the initial transaction, Centene has certain rights to expand its equity investment in the future, Centene said in a statement.
“Centene has established a transformative partnership with RxAdvance to create its next generation pharmacy management solution,” said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman and CEO of Centene. “RxAdvance’s transparency, disruptive technology, and unique approach to partnership will help us further improve quality health outcomes for our members and other customers, while managing healthcare costs.”
Mr. Ika will continue in his current role as CEO. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, will remain as Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer. Jesse Hunter, Executive Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions and Chief Strategy Officer for Centene, has joined the RxAdvance Board effective immediately.
“For the past few years, the PBM industry has been under pressure as employers and payers recognize the need for both technology innovation and new business models. RxAdvance has positioned itself as a true transformative partner who together with Centene will drive change by empowering stakeholders across the care continuum,” said Mr. Ika, RxAdvance Founder and CEO. “Together, we will create an industry standard of excellence.”
Centene has had a long-standing commitment to providing comprehensive and integrated specialty services, including pharmacy management expertise provided through its Envolve division. Under this partnership, Centene and external customers will leverage Envolve’s clinical competencies and RxAdvance’s Collaborative PBM Cloud™ platform to deliver integrated, real-time, and data-driven pharmacy management services.
