Company Overview
Highlights
Leading health care IT company, with software and hardware installed in more than half of U.S. hospitals with more than 200 beds.
Largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America, delivering more than a third of all medicines used daily by pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors' offices.
McKesson, which traces its roots back nearly 175 years, is the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the US. It operates via three main lines of business: Pharmaceutical Solutions (McKesson’s main business is the wholesale distribution of drugs to some 25,000 locations across the country), Medical-Surgical Solutions (McKesson provides 150,000 medical products to more than 300,000 customers), and Provider Technologies (software, hardware, automation, services, and consulting to hospitals, physician offices, imaging centers, and home health care agencies). An $810 million lawsuit and $157 million in losses made 2005 a pretty rough year for McKesson, but the major healthcare service provider came back in a big way in 2006 with strong sales growth and the acquisitions of medical technology companies to boost profits to $751 million in 2006 and $913 million in 2007. Being Wal-Mart’s primary prescription drug supplier also didn’t hurt. This year is shaping up to be another good one for the Fortune 500 company (ranked 18th), as second-quarter revenues for 2008 reached $24.5 billion compared to $22.4 billion the previous year.