CVS Caremark has been awarded a 12-year contract to provide pharmacy benefits to the 9.7 million lives covered by Aetna.

Ronald A. Williams

Financial terms of the deal involving about $9.5 billion in annual drug spending were not disclosed.

Aetna will retain its pharmacy benefits management and manage clinical programs, protocols and oversight of its pharmacy benefits business. CVS Caremark will administer Aetna’s retail pharmacy network and management of pharmacy customer and member service functions.

In addition, CVS Caremark will manage purchasing, inventory management and prescription fulfillment for Aetna’s mail-order and specialty pharmacy operations.

“We worked hard to construct a strategic solution that enhances our value proposition in the marketplace in a way that creates a durable competitive advantage for Aetna and long-term value for our shareholders,” said Ronald A. Williams, Aetna chairman and CEO, in a statement. ”Through this strategic agreement, we retain our PBM and our ability to integrate medical care with clinical and pharmacy programs and actionable data.  We will add CVS Caremark’s best-in-class clinical capabilities and broad market reach, enabling us to deliver better drug discounts and improved pricing and service to our customers.”

The deal drew a quick response from Joseph H. Harmison, president of the National Community Pharmacists Association.

“The cries of protest against compromised care and unreasonable restrictions on patient choice are likely to only grow louder and more frequent with this agreement,” said Harmison in a statement. “Regrettably, Aetna customers and patients can anticipate a barrage of misleading sales pitches and complex schemes intended to camouflage CVS Caremark’s history of over-promising and under-delivering on pharmacy savings.”

Harmison, whose organization represents more than 22,700 independent community pharmacies, franchises and chains, did not direct any comments at Aetna’s operations.

CVS Corp. and Caremark Rx Inc. merged in 2007, combining the biggest pharmacy chain in the U.S. with the pharmaceutical services company.

“When it comes to putting its profits before patients, CVS Caremark is quite simply in a league of its own,” said Harmison, president of an Arlington, Texas, pharmacy. He said the pharmacy benefit manager’s pledge to  be “agnostic as to where patients filled their prescriptions” is going unfulfilled.

“That pledge has rung hollow as patients and local pharmacists complain of greater and greater pressure – or outright mandates – to switch prescriptions to CVS stores or Caremark mail order,” he said.

He further complained about CVS Caremark’s “utilization of sensitive, private medical information for crass, marketing pitches” and the company’s “imposition of the ironically named ‘Maintenance Choice’ program, which can force patients to endure unreasonable requirements for their prescription medication, such as significant waits for mail order or long trips to the nearest CVS.”