Disruption Hits the Digital Health Sector

Disruption Hits the Digital Health Sector

by | Aug 16, 2018 4:54 pm | eHealth, Private Equity | 0 comments

Retailers have been the big disruptors in the healthcare market in recent months, but not in digital health. CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Aetna’s (NYSE: AET) merger, announced in December 2017, is still on track. Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) deal for PillPack has many wondering what’s next in the online pharmaceutical space. Now there’s Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), the consumer electronics retailer, entering the healthcare arena. The company announced on August 15 it was throwing down $800 million in cash to acquire GreatCall, Inc., an aging-in-place player, from GTCR. The private equity firm bought GreatCall about a year ago, in June 2017, for an undisclosed price.... Read More »
Q2:18 Health Care Deal Volume and Value Explode

Q2:18 Health Care Deal Volume and Value Explode

by | Jul 6, 2018 3:02 pm | Healthcare Market Updates | 0 comments

What a quarter it was. Even with preliminary data, the numbers of deals and dollars spent in the second quarter of 2018 are impressive. The quarter began with a bang in April (176 deals), settled in May (136 deals) and slowed in June (122 deals). That still adds up to 432 transactions reported in the second quarter, up 1% compared with the first quarter, and 13% better than the same quarter in 2017. The Services sectors accounted for 59% of the deal volume in Q1:18, five percentage points lower than in the previous quarter, and three percentage points lower than Q2:17. The Long-Term Care sector, which turned in 47 deals in April alone, posted gains of 28% compared with Q1:18 and 33%... Read More »
Amazon Scoops Up PillPack for $1 Billion

Amazon Scoops Up PillPack for $1 Billion

by | Jun 28, 2018 11:42 am | Other Services | 0 comments

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) finally took the plunge into the pharmaceutical market with its approximately $1 billion acquisition of five-year-old PillPack, an online pharmacy startup based in Manchester, New Hampshire. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in the deal’s announcement, but on June 28, the day of the announcement, The Wall Street Journal quoted sources on the price. In April 2018, Walmart (NYSE: WMT) was reported to be in discussions with PillPack, and targeting a price under $1 billion, according to CNBC. Amazon was also said to be holding  discussions with the company at the time. PillPack is an online pharmacy that delivers medications in pre-sorted dose packaging and... Read More »
A Bubble in Healthcare Services? What Bubble?

A Bubble in Healthcare Services? What Bubble?

by | May 20, 2018 5:51 pm | Healthcare Market Updates | 0 comments

Bubble talk is back. Anyone who’s bought a healthcare services company in 2018 has hit a hard reality. Depending on the sector, multiples are the highest they’ve ever been, crazy or insane. We attended the ACG New York chapter’s annual healthcare deal conference, titled “Health Care Deals 2018: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going…” (ellipsis theirs) on a recent May morning. With a title like that, and a market as it is now, the question “Who’s investing in health care these days?” elicited the response, “Who isn’t investing in health care now?” The universe of investors has broadened to include Amazon (NASDAQ:... Read More »
Deal of the Week: McKesson/RxCrossroads

Deal of the Week: McKesson/RxCrossroads

by | Nov 10, 2017 5:56 pm | Biotechnology, Managed Care, Other Services, Pharmaceuticals | 0 comments

The largest deal announced in a very sluggish week for healthcare announcements was McKesson Corp.’s (NYSE: MCK) $735 million acquisition of RxCrossroads from CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS). RxCrossroads provides a range of specialty distribution, pharmacy and patient support to biopharmaceutical manufacturers. CVS acquired it in 2015 as part of its $12.7 billion deal for Omnicare Inc., which specialized in managing pharmaceutical care in long-term care and assisted living facilities. Omnicare paid $235 million for RxCrossroads in 2005, when it reported annualized revenue of $46 million. For McKesson, RxCrossroads will help it to capitalize on what the coming boom in the specialty... Read More »