Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race
Cigna (NYSE: CI) is buying Express Scripts Holdings (NYSE: ESRX) for $67 billion, including debt. Some company was going to buy it, we just weren’t sure who. The deal follows the announcement of the $77 billion CVS Health/Aetna (NYSE: CVS/AET) deal and the $4.9 billion Optum/DaVita Medical Group (NYSE: UNH/DVA) hook-up in December 2017. That’s when the word “disruption” became the top-ranked meme in U.S. healthcare. We’ll grant that CVS’s move into managed care signals a change in business-as-usual. But Optum’s deal for DaVita’s medical group didn’t break new ground. Optum has long been known as a voracious acquirer of physician... Read More »
Managed Care Sector Had a Big Q4:17
The fourth quarter of 2017 will be remembered for some time to come, thanks to the game-changing deal announced between pharmacy/retailer CVS Health and Aetna, one of the largest managed care companies in the country. That was only one deal, of course, and there were actually 10 transactions announced in Q4:17. Fourth quarter deal volume represents a 38% share of the 26 deals announced in the previous 12 months, and a 150% increase over the same quarter in 2016. Source: HealthCareMandA.com, January 2018 Two of the 10 deals disclosed prices in the fourth quarter, for nearly $80.6 billion, the highest ever recorded in this sector, or several others. The total represents 95% of the $84.7... Read More »
Diplomat Adds Pharmacy Benefits Management to Its Roster
Pharmacy benefit management (PBM) deals have picked up slightly in 2017. With less than two months left in the year, six of these deals have been announced, up from 2016’s total of three deals. The most recent announcement is Diplomat Pharmacy Inc.’s (NYSE: DPLO) acquisition of National Pharmaceutical Services for $47 million. Diplomat, a specialty pharmaceutical company, has been active acquiring other specialty pharmacy groups over the past two years. The NPS deal marks its entry into the PBM space. Pharmaceutical Technologies, Inc., dba National Pharmaceutical Services, is a full-service pharmacy benefit manager that provides proprietary claims-processing system and offers mail-order... Read More »
Deal of the Week: Express Scripts Diversifies
Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) didn’t hedge its bets that online retail giant Amazon will enter the prescription drug delivery market. On October 10, the leading pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) acquired South Carolina-based eviCore healthcare from its current investors, including General Atlantic, TA Associates, and Ridgemont Equity Partners, for $3.6 billion. The deal follows rumors that Amazon is contemplating entering the prescription drug delivery market in an attempt to improve price transparency for consumers and reduce out-of-pocket costs. Last April, Express Scripts lost Anthem, Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) as a client, and with it, 18% of annual revenue. The threat of... Read More »Schedule a demo
Gain access to the best healthcare and long-term care investment intelligence, data, and analysis.
