FoxMeyer Sues McKesson And Others

FoxMeyer Health Corp of the USA has filed suit in a Texas District Courtalleging that US firm McKesson and a number of other major pharmaceutical manufacturers conspired to drive its subsidiary, FoxMeyer Drug Company, out of business.

Other defendents in the suit include Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Wellcome, Eli Lilly, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Schering-Plough, Amgen, SmithKline Beecham, Zeneca, Janssen Pharmaceutica, and Pharmacia & Upjohn, all of which were suppliers to FoxMeyer Drug.

McKesson had engaged in negotiations with FoxMeyer to acquire its drug distribution operations (Marketletter October 14, 1996). FoxMeyer alleges that McKesson misused "confidential financial and competitive information to which it had gained access in conceiving, perpetrating, and promoting a plan to drive FoxMeyer out of its industry." It alleges that McKesson exploited this information by interfering with FoxMeyer Drug's customer and vendor relationships and disrupting its operations in order ultimately to effect a purchase of its competitor at a significantly depressed price.