AmerisourceBergen chief leaves Aetna's board

R. David Yost, president and chief executive officer of pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp., has resigned from Aetna's board of directors, citing a conflict of interest created by the health insurer's pharmacy benefit management business. "As AmerisourceBergen is a pharmaceutical services corporation, and Aetna now has its own pharmacy benefit management business, I think that it would be appropriate for me to leave the Aetna board at this time," Yost said in a written statement. Yost joined Aetna's board in October 2002. Aetna announced plans to purchase the mail-order prescription drug business of Eckerd Health Services in December 2002. Yost's statement did not address the passage of time since the conflict was created. Asked to comment, an Aetna spokesman said the statement "speaks for itself." Aetna has approximately 13.9 million members nationwide. -- by Cinda Becker