The Justice Department recently approved CVS’s mega $69b purchase of Aetna, conditioned on Aetna’s sell-off of its private Medicare drug plans. In addition to owning almost 10,000 retail stores in the U.S., CVS provides drug plans to more than 90 million people. It plans to use its pharmacy locations to provide consumers with more local care options, repurposing portions of …

CIGNA Corporation, a $41.62b provider of healthcar insurance services acquires Express Scripts Inc, a $100.06b provider of pharmacy benefit management services. The U.S. Justice Department recently cleared this deal, part of the wave of consolidations transforming the health care industry. Amazon’s move into the health care business has forced established companies to rethink how they can compete. Cigna and Express Scripts said their …

Stryker Corporation, a $12.44b maker of Orthopedics, MedSurg, Neurotechnology and Spine products is acquiring Invuity, Inc, a manufacturer of photonics and single-use, lighted retractor instruments for open surgery. Invuity’s retractor-based lights provides direct visualization of surgical cavities during open minimally invasive and minimal access procedures. Invuity’s topline has grown by more than 20% last year, with gross margins in the high 60% to …

The global dry eye market is expected to reach $7.78b by 2025 (Transparency Market Research). The dry eye market includes pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, surgery and new devices (profiled below).  Key drivers include: the aging population; the rising prevalence of diseases like diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis that can give rise to dry eyes; greater awareness of eye health; and new technologies that …

Medicare ACOs began in 2012 and have enrolled more than 10 million beneficiaries so far. If they provide care for less than certain cost targets — while meeting quality of care standards — then they get to share in any of the savings. Commercial insurers and Medicaid have also adopted ACOs in the past decade. About 82% of the 561 …

The retail giant plans to start a Seattle-based clinic, which will serve a small group of employees at first. The program will then be expanded in early 2019, as part of an ongoing quest to reduce health care costs and cut red tape. Apple also started clinics, initially to serve Apple’s employees in Santa Clara County. Recently, Amazon teamed up …

Emergent BioSolutions, Inc., a $560.8m specialty pharmaceutical company focused on public health threats,  is buying PaxVax, Inc., a PE- backed company focuses on specialty vaccines against existing and emerging infectious diseases. The deal expands Emergent’s specialty vaccine platform. PaxVax’s main product include Vivotif, the only oral vaccine licensed by FDA to prevent typhoid fever, and Vaxhora, a vaccine against cholera developed for the …

President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports could cost American medical device makers more than $1.5b annually, according to some estimates. MRIs, CT scanners, pacemakers, sonograms and other imaging components were all included in the list of items subject to the 25% tariffs that went into effect on June 6. Also included are a variety of medical supplies and instruments made …

Celgene Corp., a $12.5b developer of therapies for cancer and inflammatory diseases is buying Juno Therapeutics Inc., a Seattle-based biotech company making cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy treatments. The Deal expands Celgene’s portfolio of blood-cancer drugs. Juno is one of leaders in a new kind of cancer treatment, known as CAR-T, that takes a patient’s own immune cells, modifies them and then sets them …

Starting in 2020 medtech firms will be competing in a significantly more complicated European market. New Medical Devices Regulations (MDR) were written to strengthen device safety standards but they will make it far more onerous and expensive for medtech firms to market their products in Europe.  Because of the MDR, many smaller companies may not be able to comply, and …