The healthcare sector (incorporating pharma, medical and biotech) has seen M&A valued at US$256.5 billion across 645 deals in 2019. This is a decrease of 9 percent by volume, but an increase of 121 percent by value....more
Concluding one of the longest merger reviews in history, on September 4, Judge Richard Leon, District Judge for the District of Columbia, issued his final ruling in United States v. CVS Health, approving the proposed...more
On June 4 – 5, 2019, Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held an extraordinary and unprecedented evidentiary hearing to decide whether to enter the proposed Final Judgment in U.S. v....more
The District of Columbia District Court has again deferred its decision regarding whether to approve the merger between CVS Health and Aetna, a $69 billion transaction that was first announced back in December 2017. ...more
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on November 26, CVS Health Corporation announced that it has received all of the regulatory approvals necessary to complete its acquisition of Aetna and that the...more
During a public hearing in New York City on Thursday, October 18, 2018, New York State regulators, including Superintendent Maria Vullo of the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), threatened to block CVS...more
The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division announced on October 10, 2018, that it was conditionally approving the CVS/Aetna merger, a $69 billion transaction that combines the nation’s largest retail pharmacy...more
In December of 2017, CVS Health and Aetna announced their intention to merge. The transaction, if approved by regulators, would combine the country’s second largest pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), Caremark – a CVS subsidiary...more
Historically, health plans and pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”) have been uncomfortable neighbors. Plans provide drug coverage, but contract out the provision of such drugs to independent PBMs. PBMs in turn earn market...more
Last Tuesday, February 27, 2018, representatives of CVS Health and Aetna went before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law (“Subcommittee”) to argue in favor of CVS...more
Two merger announcements this week—one concerning CVS’s intention to acquire Aetna and the other concerning United/Optum’s intention to acquire DaVita’s physician group—have health investors and strategists peering over the...more
On December 3, 2017, CVS Health, a giant in the retail pharmacy industry, announced plans to acquire Aetna. Aetna is one of the largest medical insurers in the nation, servicing approximately 46.7 million people. Under the...more
Breakingviews on Broadcom’s threat to Qualcomm’s board in the form of a slate of 11 director nominees for the company it has, so far, unsuccessfully attempted to purchase....more
Here’s the inside scoop on “Sheltered Harbor,” a “doomsday project” from US banks that they hope will “prevent a run on the financial system should one of them suffer a debilitating cyberattack.” The gargantuan voluntary...more
Samsung, beset by top-level resignations and a mess of bribery allegations reaching the former South Korean President and the crown prince of the family’s chaebol, has announced a new slate of execs “In an effort to bring...more
Most insiders are chalking up last week’s CVS/Aetna news to a recent Amazon push into the pharma world. The Journal breaks down exactly what that means—both for the industry and for Amazon, which faces a series of challenges...more
Deutsche Borse CEO Carsten Kengeter announced yesterday that he’ll step down in the wake of insider-trading allegations related to the exchange’s now-defunct merger with the London Stock Exchange Group....more