• Center on Health Equity and Access
  • Clinical
  • Health Care Cost
  • Health Care Delivery
  • Insurance
  • Policy
  • Technology
  • Value-Based Care

UnitedHealth to Buy Catamaran, Boost PBM Business

Article

With a combined 1 billion scripts annually, UnitedHealth will be about the same size as current industry number 2, CVS Health Corp.

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc agreed to buy Catamaran Corp in a deal worth about $12.8 billion to boost its pharmacy benefit business as it competes with bigger rivals such as Express Scripts Holdings Co.

Pharmacy benefit managers administer drug benefits for employers and health plans and run large mail order pharmacies, helping them get better prices from drugmakers.

As employers look to cut prescription costs on expensive drugs, the deal with Catamaran will give UnitedHealth's pharmacy benefits unit, OptumRx, the scale to negotiate favorable prices from pharmacy companies.

Link to the Reuters news:

http://reut.rs/1xttI4e

Related Videos
Pregnant Patient | image credit: pressmaster - stock.adobe.com
Amit Singal, MD, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Mila Felder, MD, FACEP, emergency physician and vice president for Well-Being for All Teammates, Advocate Health
Rashon Lane, PhD, MA
Dr Julie Patterson, National Pharmaceutical Council
Diana Isaacs, PharmD
Video 11 - "Social Burden and Goals of Therapy for Patients with Bronchiectasis"
Beau Raymond, MD
Binod Dhakal, MD, Medical College of Wisconsin, lead CARTITUDE-4 investigator
Dr Sophia Humphreys
Related Content
© 2024 MJH Life Sciences
AJMC®
All rights reserved.