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McKesson to sell 28 stores to win Competition Bureau approval for Rexall deal
Original Publication Date: December 14, 2016 1:39AM
Publication Updated: April 27, 2025 2:21AM
OTTAWA – U.S. health-care company McKesson has agreed to sell 28 drugstores to win approval from the Competition Bureau for its deal to buy the Rexall Health pharmacy chain.
The Canadian regulator says the proposed $3-billion acquisition of Rexall would “likely result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition” if it was allowed to go ahead as originally planned.
Under a consent agreement with the Competition Bureau, McKesson will also restrict the exchange of “commercially sensitive information” between its wholesale and Rexall retail business in order to preserve competition at the retail level.
The locations pegged for sale are located in small communities in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C. and the Northwest Territories.
Last March, Calgary-based Katz Group announced that it was selling its 470 Rexall retail pharmacies to McKesson, a company it has worked closely with for 20 years.
In 2012, McKesson acquired Katz’s independent outlets and franchise businesses — primarily operating as I.D.A. and Guardian — for about $920 million.
The San Francisco-based McKesson is the largest wholesaler of pharmaceutical products in Canada.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version used an incorrect figure for store closures.
News from © The Canadian Press, . All rights reserved.
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