Trump’s Drug-Price Push Butts Into Two Megadeals
A proposal seemingly targeting the middlemen of the process may alter the math on more than $100 billion of M&A.
Harsh medicine for middlemen?
Photographer: Victoria Arocho/Bloomberg
Donald Trump’s drug-price push is steering right into health megadeals.
The Trump administration’s budget office was sent a proposal by the Health and Human Services Department late Wednesday that seems to target pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen in the pricing process — as part of efforts to change the way drugs are paid for. In doing so, the measure stands to alter the math of two huge pending tie-ups in the industry: the $67.5 billion acquisition of insurer Aetna Inc. by PBM giant CVS Health Inc., and the $54 billion takeover of PBM Express Scripts Holding Co. by insurer Cigna Corp.