Cigna agrees to buy Express Scripts in a $52 billion health care deal.
The health insurance giant Cigna said Thursday that it had agreed to buy Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager, in a $52 billion deal that could further reshape the roiling health care landscape.
The deal is the latest in a wave of consolidations that is sweeping through the health care industry. Companies are reacting to concerns over rising health care costs and the possibility of powerful new rivals entering the fray. In particular, Amazon’s move into the health care business has forced established companies to rethink how they can compete.
Cigna and Express Scripts said the acquisition would benefit consumers by allowing the two companies to bring together patients’ medical and pharmacy histories to improve treatments and lower costs.
“This step furthers our strategy to improve the affordability and value to the consumer in a more personalized way,” said Cigna’s chief executive, David Cordani, who will serve as chief executive for the combined company.
The completion of the deal would mark the end of Express Scripts as the last major independent pharmacy benefit manager, one that has focused on striking deals with drug companies to lower costs for insurers and employers. The company is responsible for the prescription plans of more than 80 million Americans.
“This is the future of the stand-alone” pharmacy benefit manager, said Tim Wentworth, chief executive of Express Scripts, who would serve as president of the Express Scripts business under the deal. The two companies said that they would continue to offer pharmacy services to other insurers and to employers that do not use Cigna.
The deal would ensure that all of the major pharmacy benefit managers would have ties to big insurers. CVS Health, which also owns pharmacies, recently announced a merger agreement with health insurer Aetna. OptumRx is owned by the insurance giant UnitedHealth Group. Anthem, which operates forprofit Blue Cross plans in several states, said it had plans to create its own pharmacy business.