Top 10 Healthcare Services Deals 2010-2019

Top 10 Healthcare Services Deals 2010-2019

What a decade it’s been for health care! The Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, unleased a tidal wave of change on the U.S. healthcare landscape that continues today. Even on the services side, pharmaceuticals figured into several transactions, from acquiring pharmacy benefits managers and contract research organizations (the R&D angle) to wholesale and distribution. With only a few days left in the decade, here’s a chart of the top 10 healthcare services deals announced since January 1, 2010, ranked by disclosed price. Five of the top 10 deals were announced in the last three years, including CVS Health’s (NYSE: CVS) $78 billion shocker targeting Aetna,... Read More »
340B Company Verity Solutions Grabbed by Express Scripts

340B Company Verity Solutions Grabbed by Express Scripts

It’s been a quiet 18 months for Express Scripts, since its $67 acquisition by Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) back in March 2018, but the company is back in the M&A market. Last week, the pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) announced it bought Verity Solutions from Ignitions Partners. Verity provides 340B solutions to hundreds of integrated healthcare systems, acute-care hospitals, community health centers, and pharmacies. 340B is a federal program that requires drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to eligible healthcare organizations and covered entities at significantly reduced prices. Verity Solutions will operate as a standalone company under the Express umbrella,... Read More »
Cambia Health Combines (Not Merges) with BCBS of North Carolina

Cambia Health Combines (Not Merges) with BCBS of North Carolina

Managed care deals have fallen off the radar recently. In all of 2018, we saw just 25 announcements, down 51% from the year before. The marketplace is certainly undergoing significant changes, as CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) moves ahead with its new subsidiary, Aetna, to create Health Hubs within its retail stores. That combination took Aetna off the acquisition trail. Likewise, Cigna’s (NYSE: CI) acquisition of pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts in 2017 took that managed care company out of the market for the moment. Now comes the unusual combination of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBCNC), based in Durham, and Cambia Health Solutions out in Portland, Oregon. Blue... Read More »
The Top 10 Healthcare Deals of 2018. So Far

The Top 10 Healthcare Deals of 2018. So Far

It’s been a busy year for healthcare deal makers, and it’s not over yet. With slightly more than 1,700 deals announced as we went to press, this year’s deal volume has already surpassed 2017’s 1,607 total. Dollar volume is on par with last year’s total of $316.3 billion. At the moment, 2018’s spend stands at $316.9 billion. We will likely see a few more big deals in the remaining weeks of December, just as in December 2017. That was the month that CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced their $77 billion tie-up, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health made their mega-merger public, Optum (NYSE: UNH) announced its $4.9 billion acquisition of DaVita Medical Group (NYSE:... Read More »
Avella Specialty Pharmacy Goes to OptumRx

Avella Specialty Pharmacy Goes to OptumRx

The auction for Riordan, Lewis & Haden’s portfolio company, Avella Specialty Pharmacy, was well under way back in February, according to industry sources. UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum was reported to be in the lead, and then things went dark. It wasn’t until UnitedHealth Group’s third quarter earnings report was published on October 16 that the story ended. Some time in the third quarter, Optum acquired Avella and tucked it into its OptumRx pharmacy services subsidiary. The price wasn’t disclosed, but PEHub cited two sources saying the deal was valued at around $325 million. That’s pretty low, considering Avella’s previously disclosed... Read More »