Express Scripts Inc. (ESRX)’s $29.1 billion bid for Medco Health Solutions Inc. (MHS) may face scrutiny from the U.S. House Judiciary Committee after the panel’s top Democrat questioned whether the deal is anticompetitive. The panel should evaluate how the deal will affect health insurance and drug costs, Representative John Conyers of Michigan said in a letter yesterday to Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. Express Scripts’s plan to form the biggest U.S. pharmacy benefits manager requires approval by U.S. antitrust regulators. The customer base of the St. Louis-based company would rise 50 percent to 135 million if the purchase is cleared, according to Arthur Henderson, an analyst at Jefferies & Co. in Nashville, Tennessee. The biggest rival, CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS), based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, serves 85 million people.
