The story
19th century
McKesson was founded in 1828 in New York City as Charles M. Olcott by Charles M. Olcott. It was later renamed Olcott, McKesson & Co. and John McKesson in 1833. The business began as an importer and wholesaler of botanical drugs. A third partner, Daniel Robbins, who joined the enterprise as it grew, and who previously "was an assistant to the original partners", was the "Robbins" when the company was renamed McKesson & Robbins following Olcott's death in 1853.
20th century
In 1938, the company was involved in the McKesson and Robbins scandal under CEO Phillip Musica. It was one of the most notorious business and accounting scandals of the 20th century, a watershed event that led to major changes in American auditing standards and securities regulations after being exposed in 1938. It was found that one fourth of the $86,556,270 assets of the company was just figures recorded to keep McKesson looking profitable while Musica, who was posing as F. Donald Coster, and his brothers stole the funds. The company was able to weather the crisis after an equity receivership.
In 1967, Foremost Dairies, a company founded by James Cash Penney, which was headquartered in San Francisco since 1954, acquired McKesson & Robbins in a hostile takeover to form Foremost-McKesson Inc. The Foremost dairy operations were sold in 1982 and the name changed to McKesson Corporation but headquarters remained in San Francisco.
In 1999, McKesson acquired medical information systems firm HBO & Company (HBOC). The combined firm operated as McKessonHBOC for two years. Accounting irregularities at HBOC reduced the company's share price by half and resulted in the dismissal and prosecution of many HBOC executives.
21st century
In 2001, the company's name reverted to McKesson. In the early 21st century, McKesson increased its market in medical technology through acquisitions, including Per Se Technologies and RelayHealth in 2006 and Practice Partner in 2007. On January 6, 2006, McKesson acquired NDCHealth Corporation.
In 2010, McKesson acquired the oncology and physician services company US Oncology, Inc. for $2.16 billion, which was integrated into the McKesson Specialty Health business. In April 2012, McKesson agreed to pay the United States $190M to settle allegations that it had inflated prices and overbilled Medicaid. Three months later, in July 2012, McKesson agreed to pay California and 28 other states $151M to settle allegations that it had inflated prices and overbilled Medicaid.
On June 24, 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that McKesson Chairman and CEO John Hammergren's pension benefits of $159 million had set a record for "the largest pension on file for a current executive of a public company, and almost certainly the largest ever in corporate America". In 2013, PSS World Medical was acquired. In 2014, McKesson acquired Celesio to become one of the world's largest healthcare companies, with over $179 billion in annual revenue. In June 2016, McKesson announced plans to merge its IT business with Change Healthcare.
In 2017, McKesson was involved in many lawsuits against the state of Arkansas over the supply of vecuronium bromide. McKesson was under contract by Pfizer not to sell to any correctional facility that authorized and carried out capital punishment.
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In November 2018, the company announced it would relocate its headquarters from San Francisco to Irving, Texas, effective April 1, 2019. Also in April 2019, Brian Tyler took over as CEO of the company.
In February 2020, McKesson Corp announced that it would part ways with Change Healthcare. McKesson gave up its ownership in the company and its three seats on the company's board of directors. In February 2025, the McKesson Corporation signed a definitive agreement to acquire 80% interest in PRISM Vision Holdings.
In August 2026, the company was hacked by ShinyHunters.
Opioid epidemic
In 2008, McKesson paid $13 million in fines for failing to report large orders of hydrocodone.
In January 2017, McKesson agreed to pay a $150 million civil penalty for alleged similar violations of the Controlled Substances Act regarding the distribution of opioids and another $150M to settle allegations that it had not done enough to track and stop suspicious opioid sales. The agreement also obligated McKesson to suspend all sales of controlled substances from its distribution centers in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan for multiple years.
In May 2020, Attorney General of Oklahoma Michael J. Hunter sued McKesson in Bryan County District Court, alleging that the company's actions helped fuel Oklahoma's opioid crisis. The suit was filed along with lawsuits against Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, and the three lawsuits allege that the three companies provided "enough opioids to Bryan County that every adult resident there could have had 144 hydrocodone tablets."
In January 2022, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $26 billion to settle with all but five of the states suing them. Had the states gone to court, the companies could have faced up to $95 billion in penalties.
COVID-19 pandemic
In August 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC and HHS selected McKesson as the US government's centralized distributor for COVID-19 vaccine doses and ancillary supply kits under Operation Warp Speed. The company has played a key role in distributing the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines while also distributing ancillary supply kits for these as well as for the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine across the US (in addition to supporting the US government in efforts to send doses and kits abroad).
From Wikipedia’s article on McKesson, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8