Oxycontin News Blog

Seven of West Virginia's eight methadone clinics are being sold for about $36 million to a Boston-based firm with interests in various businesses, including Domino's Pizza, FTD Floral and Staples, according to Health Care Authority.

Bain Capital has agreed to buy CRC Health Group Inc., of Cupertino, Calif., which now owns the clinics, for $720 million. CRC operates 90 methadone facilities in 21 states.

In December 2003, CRC bought National Specialty Clinics Inc. for about $100 million. National Specialty operated 17 clinics in six states, including Beckley, Charleston, Clarksburg, Huntington, Parkersburg, Wheeling and Williamson. The West Virginia clinics sold for $24 million, according to Health Care Authority documents.

The entire $720 million transaction is expected to be complete by early 2006. The West Virginia sale is expected to be complete within two months after the Health Care Authority approves it, according to a filing document.

Bain Capital was founded in 1984 by Mitt Romney, now governor of Massachusetts. The firm has founded, acquired or invested in a wide variety of companies, including Office Depot, KB Toys, Samsonite luggage, Sealy mattresses, the Fingerhut catalog and Shopping.com.

The business made headlines earlier this year when it offered to buy the entire National Hockey League for $4.3 billion.

The West Virginia clinics will be acquired by merging them with CRCA Merger Corp., whose parent is CRCA Holdings Inc. of Boston, the document states.

A lawyer at CRC Health Group confirmed that the merger is part of the larger national transaction. CRC owns all of West Virginia's methadone clinics except one.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used to treat people addicted to opium-based drugs, including heroin, morphine and OxyContin and wean them off those drugs.

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