St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • A12

Wednesday 11.14.2018 a12 1 FROM sTaFF RePORTs Simmons First National which has a handful of bank branches in the St. Louis area, is buying Des Peres-based Reliance Bancshares, the parent company of Reli- ance Bank. Pine Bluff, Simmons, which operates Simmons Bank, is acquiring all of the outstanding common stock of Reli- ance for a combination of stock and $62.7 million in cash, the banks announced Tuesday. Reliance has 22 branches and $1.5 bil- lion in assets, as of Sept. 30, and $1.2 bil- lion in deposits.

Once the acquisition fi- nalizes slated for the second quarter of 2019 Reliance Bank will be merged into Simmons Bank. The acquisition is pend- ing regulatory approval and approval by Reliance shareholders. Reliance Bank branches will be re- named Simmons Bank and all of branches will remain open, said Caroline Makris, vice president and marketing manager at Simmons. Simmons had $16.3 billion in assets as of September 30, and operations in Ar- kansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Okla- homa, Tennessee and Texas. is a growing regional bank known for its commitment to providing excellent service to its customers and com- munities, and that is precisely what Reli- ance Bank has strived to achieve, as chairman and CEO Thomas Brouster said in a statement.

this transaction, our customers will receive the benefit of additional products and ser- vices, as well as a larger balance sheet that will provide greater lending Simmons entered the St. Louis market in 2012 by acquiring the assets of Tru- man Bank, which was closed by regula- tors. Simmons assumed all of the failed deposits, and branches reopened as Simmons branches. With the acquisition of Reliance Bank, Simmons said it will build on the success of its local commercial lending efforts. desire is to be a strong, supportive, full-service financial institution for the people, businesses, and organizations of St.

Louis; and I am confident that we have teamed with another great banking part- ner to achieve that chair- man and CEO George A. Makris Jr. said in a statement. look forward to officially welcoming Reliance customers and associates to the Simmons By deena BeasLey Reuters Express Scripts Holding Co. on Tuesday announced a new drug reimbursement list with lower U.S.

prices for brand- name medications, as a way to encourage drugmakers to move away from paying rebates after a prescription is filled. The St. Louis County-based manager of prescription drug benefits for large corporate employers and government health plans said its new National Pre- ferred Flex Formulary will be available as of Jan. 1 to all clients. So far, two drugs from a Gilead Sciences Inc.

unit will be on the new formulary, which Express Scripts said in a statement it hoped would encourage more drug- makers to keep list prices low. Drug rebates have come under fire from the administration of President Donald Trump and consumer groups as patients find themselves paying much higher in- surance co-payments and deductibles tied to a sticker price. is all in an effort to normalize re- bates in the Steve Miller, Express chief medical officer, said in an interview. have talked to dozens of pharmaceutical manufacturers. Many have expressed tremendous inter- est in He said the new formulary may appeal to employers and health insurers seek- ing to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs and reliance on brand rebates, but plan sponsors who prefer the current price system and rebates stick to He acknowledged that drugmakers would still offer rebates as a lever to influ- ence payers deciding coverage terms for similar medications.

The new coverage list is largely identi- cal to Express National Preferred Formulary, which covers some 3,000 branded and generic drugs for nearly 25 million people. Gilead in September slashed the list prices of two hepatitis therapies, Ep- clusa and Harvoni, to $24,000 per course of treatment from close to $100,000. The company said that competition among hepatitis therapies, rebates and dis- counts had already shaved more than 60 percent off the average U.S. price paid for the drugs. Amgen Inc.

last month slashed the U.S. list price for its cholesterol drug Repatha by 60 percent to $5,850 a year, citing the need to reduce out-of-pocket costs for patients on Medicare, the federal govern- health plan for seniors. Rival cholesterol drug Praluent, from partners Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sanofi SA, is the preferred op- tion on Express largest formulary through 2019. But Miller said Repatha could displace Praluent on the new formulary.

Miller said other categories in which lower list prices and minimal rebates would make sense for drugmakers, pay- ers and patients are insulins, high-priced respiratory drugs and emergency allergy injections. By JaCOB BaRKeR St. Louis Post-Dispatch A developer affiliated with CityWide Apartments, which appears to be a new brand for local landlord and developer Asprient Properties, is proposing an- other large apartment complex in the DeBaliviere Place neighborhood north of Forest Park. The $31 million, 149-unit apartment building and parking garage would re- place tennis courts and a pool at 5539- 5551 Pershing Avenue. A report from a city agency says STL City Wide and Rain- ier One LLC plan 38 studios, 79 one-bed- room units, 25 two-bedroom units and seven three-bedroom units in the six- story complex.

Staff for the St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority are recom- mending the city grant 10 years of 85 per- cent tax abatement for the project. The developers are familiar with the DeBaliviere area. They operate several complexes around Pershing Avenue, in- cluding Park Lux and Fountain Row. Across the street from the new project, a company affiliated with an Asprient prin- cipal recently completed the 160-unit Tribeca apartment complex at 5510 Per- shing Avenue.

The company also was part of the rede- velopment of the Soulard IceHouse and is involved in the apartment building going up at the former Victor Iron Works site along South Broadway. Jacob Barker 314-340-8291 on Twitter Simmons First is buying Reliance Bank 149-unit apartment complex proposed north of Forest Park A rendering of a proposed $31 million, six-story apartment complex that would be built on Pershing Avenue in the DeBaliviere Place neighborhood. Express Scripts lowers prices for some brand-name drugs CHRISTIAN GOODEN Employees work near brainstorming boards in Express Technology and Innovation Lab building in March on the Berkeley campus. PROVIDED BY THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS No Savings, No Fee! Sign up online at www.PARresidential.com Want Lower Property Taxes? PAR Residential is the largest property tax consulting firm in the metro area.

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