McKesson Medical-Surgical and ILÚM Health Solutions Announce Distribution Alliance in Community Hospital Market

RICHMOND, Va. – September 24, 2018 – McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc., an affiliate of the McKesson Corporation, has signed an exclusive agreement with ILÚM Health Solutions, part of Merck & Co, Inc.’s Healthcare Services and Solutions business, that provides innovative technology and services to support infectious disease management, to serve the U.S. community hospital market. This agreement highlights the companies’ shared focus on supporting community hospitals to improve patient safety and conserve antibiotics.

McKesson recognizes the strategic importance of innovative technology in the health care continuum, and has steadily accelerated its investment and growth in laboratory diagnostics over the past several years.

“Through this alliance, we aim to help community hospitals overcome challenges related to the development and execution of effective antibiotic stewardship programs,” said Paul Edwards, managing director, ILÚM Health Solutions. “Studies show that the rate of antibiotic use in community hospitals is on par with academic medical centers.ⁱ This underscores the need for a technology solution that unlocks electronic patient data in order to help community hospitals maximize resources, meet national standards, and improve patient care.”

“We’re excited to partner with ILÚM and help represent its industry-leading dedicated Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) technology in the community hospital market,” said Doug Shaver, senior vice-president and general manager, McKesson Laboratory Solutions. “Their technology solutions and capabilities support McKesson’s commitment to bring a comprehensive and coordinated ASP solution to our customers.”

ILÚM is collaborating with healthcare providers to help improve infectious disease outcomes through the use of clinical decision support and electronic patient data, as well as technology-enabled solutions to facilitate antimicrobial stewardship programs and sepsis management.

ILÚM has deep experience working with hospitals to implement disease surveillance solutions and turn lab and medication data into actionable information. One example is its Precision Antibiotic Therapy (PAT™) analytic, which integrates patient-specific risk factors from the longitudinal record to offer timely insights for antibiotic use.

“About one out of every two hospitalized patients is given at least one antibioticⁱⁱ, up to half of which are not needed or are not optimally prescribed,ⁱⁱⁱ” says Dr. Brandon Palermo, chief medical officer, ILÚM Health Solutions. “We need to do better. These solutions, which include individualized precision analytics, deliver decision support within clinicians’ workflows to help ensure that the right patient gets the right antibiotic at the right time.”

About McKesson Medical-Surgical

McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. is an affiliate of the McKesson Corporation. McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 6^th on the FORTUNE 500, is a global leader in healthcare supply chain management solutions, retail pharmacy, community oncology and specialty care, and healthcare information technology. McKesson Medical-Surgical works with health systems, physician offices, extended care providers, in-home patients, labs, payers and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson Medical-Surgical helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit mms.McKesson.com.

About ILÚM Health Solutions
ILÚM Health Solutions is a provider of technology and services to support infectious disease management. ILÚM is part of Healthcare Services & Solutions, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada), an independent business unit focused on improving the value of care delivered to patients through evidence-based services and solutions. ILÚM is organized and managed independently from Merck’s pharmaceutical products business. For more information, visit www.ILÚMhealthsolutions.com and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About Merck
For more than a century, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be at the forefront of research to advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and communities around the world - including cancer, cardio-metabolic diseases, emerging animal diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and infectious diseases including HIV and Ebola. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA
This news release of ILÚM Health Solutions, part of Healthcare Services & Solutions, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).

ⁱEdward Stenehjem, Adam L. Hersh, Xiaoming Sheng, Peter Jones, Whitney R. Buckel, James F. Lloyd, Stephen Howe, R. Scott Evans, Tom Greene, Andrew T. Pavia; Antibiotic Use in Small Community Hospitals, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 63, Issue 10, 15 November 2016, Pages 1273–1280,
ⁱⁱMagill S, Edwards J, Beldavs Z, Dumyati G, Janelle SJ, et al. Prevalence of Antimicrobial Use in US Acute Care Hospitals, May-September 2011. JAMA. 2014; 312(14):1438-46, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25291579
ⁱⁱⁱSchultz L, Lowe TJ, Srinivasan A, Neilson D, Pugliese G. Economic impact of redundant antimicrobial therapy in US hospitals. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2014; 35(10):1229-35, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25203175