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CVS to Buy Drug Provider for $10.4 Billion
Deal for Omnicare to strengthen pharmacy chain’s foothold as a dispenser of expensive prescription drugs
The deal could give CVS even greater purchasing power to negotiate discounts from drug manufacturers and wholesalers, analysts said. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a bid to strengthen its foothold as a dispenser of expensive prescription drugs, CVS Health Corp. agreed Thursday to pay $10.4 billion to acquireOmnicare Inc.
Omnicare is a growing player in the fulfillment of prescriptions for diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis, where the per-patient cost of medications can range from $50,000 to $100,000 annually.
CVS offered $98 a share in cash, a 3.6% premium to Omnicare’s closing price Wednesday and a 24% premium to the pharmacy company’s average share price over the previous 100 days. The total deal is valued at $12.7 billion, including $2.3 billion in debt held by Cincinnati, Ohio-based Omnicare.
Omnicare has two main businesses. Its smaller but faster growing specialty-pharmacy unit ships expensive therapies directly to patients on behalf of pharmaceutical companies.
Such drugs typically aren’t sold in brick-and-mortar retail pharmacies, and drug makers often limit the number of pharmacies allowed to sell them. In recent months, Omnicare had signed agreements to dispense cancer drugs made by Bayer AG, Novartis AG and Pfizer Inc.
Omnicare is also the largest U.S. provider of prescription drugs to nursing homes and other housing facilities for elderly and disabled people. Pharmacy services to such long-term-care facilities represented nearly three-quarters of Omnicare’s $6.42 billion in revenue last year. But the unit has experienced sluggish growth amid competition from smaller, regional providers, analysts said.
The deal could give CVS even greater purchasing power to negotiate discounts from drug manufacturers and wholesalers, analysts said. It will also give CVS leverage to capitalize on two of the biggest trends in health care: a rapidly aging population and the growth of expensive drugs for relatively rare ailments.
CVS Chief Executive Larry Merlo, during a conference call with analysts on Thursday, said the acquisition would expand “our customer reach to a broader population of chronic-care patients and seniors at an important time as our population ages.” Mr. Merlo added that Omnicare’s specialty pharmacy unit would strengthen CVS’s “presence in this growing space.”
CVS operates nearly 8,000 retail pharmacies in the U.S., but in recent years it has expanded its operations to other areas of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Through its 2007 acquisition of Caremark, CVS is now the second largest pharmacy-benefits manager, or PBM, in the U.S. after Express Scripts HoldingCo.
PBMs manage the logistics of prescription-drug plans for insurance companies and large employers, using their purchasing power to negotiate discounts and rebates from drug makers.
In 2014, CVS was the leading provider of specialty drugs in North America, with $20.5 billion in revenue, representing 26% of the total market, according to an analysis by Adam J. Fein, a pharmaceutical-supply-chain consultant. Omnicare was the eighth-largest specialty drug provider, according to Mr. Fein.
“The specialty business is the crown jewel of Omnicare,” Dr. Fein said in an interview. “Long-term care is growing very slowly,” but it dispenses high volumes of prescription drugs, which should help CVS negotiate better discounts, Dr. Fein said.
The pharmaceutical industry has undergone a transformation in recent years as drugs for common ailments like high cholesterol have gone generic. The industry has in turn focused its research and development efforts on less common conditions affecting relatively small numbers of patients.
To compensate for the smaller market sizes, companies charge significantly more for the so-called specialty drugs. Recently, that has led to a national debate on the sustainability of high-price medications.
In the first quarter of 2015, revenue from Omnicare’s long-term-care unit was $1.19 billion, flat compared with the prior year. By contrast, revenue from the company’s specialty pharmacy and services unit grew to $465.3 million, up 23% from $379.7 million in 2014.
Omnicare’s specialty unit provides other services on behalf of drug makers as well, including the management of so-called reimbursement hubs, which help patients get expensive drugs paid for by insurance companies.
CVS’s PBM unit administers prescription-drug benefits for Medicare beneficiaries, who also make up a large percentage of the nursing-home patients serviced by Omnicare. But CVS’s Mr. Merlo said the company doesn’t “see any challenges” in clearing antitrust hurdles because regulators have said that retail pharmacies and long-term care don’t compete directly with one another.
Omnicare and other specialty pharmacies, which charge markups on the prices of prescription drugs, have benefited from price increases on older specialty medications. In its most recent regulatory filing, Omnicare said growth in its specialty unit was driven in part by “drug-price inflation.”
PBMs like CVS also keep a percentage of the rebates they negotiate from pharmaceutical companies. In recent years, competitive pressures have caused PBMs to share a greater portion of the rebates with their clients, CVS said in a recent regulatory filing.
Shares of CVS rose 2.4% to $103.69 through the close of regular trading on Thursday; shares of Omnicare rose 1.7% to $96.26.
Write to Joseph Walker at joseph.walker@wsj.com
