Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race

Cigna Bids $67 Billion to Stay in the Race

by | Mar 9, 2018 4:17 pm | Managed Care, Physician Medical Groups, Private Equity

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 »

PE Firms Make Grand Exits in the PBM Sector

by | Mar 2, 2015 6:37 pm | Other Services

After a fairly quiet 2014, M&A in the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) segment saw two big deals go down in February. First, Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) paid $2 billion for EnvisionRx, a portfolio company of TPG. Last week, Catamaran Corp. (NASDAQ: CTRX) added to its own portfolio with an all-cash, $405 million deal for Healthcare Solutions, Inc., a portfolio company of Brazos Private Equity Partners LLC. Healthcare Solutions specializes in pharmacy benefits and other services in the workers’ compensation market, making for a strong addition to Catamaran’s previous acquisitions: Restat, LLC, which provides PBM services for self-funded employers, third-party administrators,... Read More »