Dive Brief:
- Elevance has added a former Pfizer executive to its board, the latest addition of pharmaceutical industry veteran as the insurer focuses on building its pharmacy services.
- Amy Schulman will start as an independent director of Elevance effective Jan. 12, the insurer announced Wednesday. Schulman will serve on the board’s audit and finance committees.
- Schulman’s “insight into the intersection of science, technology, and patient care makes her an exceptional addition as we continue to advance and expand our services,” Ramey Peru, chair of Elevance’s board, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Elevance has been building up its board of directors, including through the addition of Steve Collis, a longtime drug distributor executive, in July.
Schulman’s appointment reflects that ongoing strategy, the company said in press release Wednesday. Elevance said the executive is a valuable addition to its board due to her investment and governance experience in the healthcare sector.
Currently, Schulman is a managing partner at venture capital firm Polaris Partners and chair of biopharmaceutical company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ board. Schulman also teaches leadership and corporate governance at Harvard Business School.
Previously, Schulman held several senior executive roles at Pfizer. The executive joined the pharmaceutical giant in 2008 as general counsel, leading the legal team through Pfizer’s $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 2009, according to a profile from the Wharton School published the following year.
Schulman then moved up to president of Pfizer Nutrition — Pfizer’s infant and child nutrition division it sold to Nestlé for almost $11.9 billion in 2012 — and Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. Pfizer Consumer Healthcare became a separate company through a joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline in 2019, with Pfizer holding minority ownership before paring back its stake and fully exiting in 2025.
Schulman’s experience with the ins and outs of the pharmacy world could serve Elevance as the company works to grow its Carelon health services division, launched as part of Elevance’s larger corporate rebranding in 2022.
Carelon includes CarelonRx, Elevance’s pharmacy benefit manager, which controls a relatively small but growing slice of the U.S. PBM market.
CarelonRx’s revenue was up more than 20% in the third quarter. However, its operating profit fell 10%, a drop that Elevance chalked up to rising investments in the business. Elevance is funneling several hundred million dollars into Carelon this year and in 2026, the company said.
On the PBM side, Elevance is expanding CarelonRx’s capacity to serve larger and more complex clients, including through better onboarding tools and systems integration, CFO Mark Kaye said during an investor conference in November.
Elevance is also investing to scale CarelonRx’s clinical and fulfillment operations, including through increased automation, and to improve medication adherence and chronic condition management.
