The top two US companies managing prescription drug benefits are uniting in a $29.1 billion deal they say will help achieve key goals of the health care overhaul: reining in costs and improving patients’ health. Express Scripts Inc. announced an agreement yesterday to buy larger rival Medco Health Solutions Inc., a combination that would handle the prescriptions of about 135 million people, more than one in three Americans. That will give them even more clout in demanding discounts from drugmakers, who are dealing with falling or stagnant revenue as blockbuster drugs taken daily by millions are getting cheaper generic competition.
