How CVS built a healthcare empire it now plans to split

Nov 4 (Reuters) - CVS Health said on ‌Wednesday it would split ​its retail ​pharmacy business from its insurance and pharmacy benefit operations, unwinding years of expansion that turned the drugstore chain into one of the largest US healthcare conglomerates.

Here is a timeline of the ‌healthcare giant's more than six-decade history:

1963: The first Consumer Value Store, selling health and beauty ⁠products, opens in Lowell, Massachusetts. The company adopts the CVS name a year later

1969: CVS is sold to Melville Corp

1972: CVS nearly doubles ‌in size with the acquisition of ‌84 Clinton Drug and Discount stores

1990s: Melville launches a multi-year reorganization, selling or spinning off most of its businesses. CVS becomes its core business and the parent company is renamed CVS Corp

1997: CVS acquires Revco D.S. ​for $2.8 billion, creating what was then the second-largest US drugstore chain by revenue

2004: CVS buys Eckerd drugstores and its mail-order pharmacy business from J.C. Penney for $2.15 billion

2006: CVS acquires in-store clinic operator MinuteClinic, expanding into ⁠healthcare services. It also buys thousands of Sav-On and Osco drugstores from Albertsons

2007: CVS acquires Caremark for $26.5 billion, creating CVS Caremark and establishing a major ​presence in pharmacy benefit management

2014-2015: CVS expands through a series of acquisitions, including Coram for $2.1 billion, long-term care pharmacy company Omnicare for $12.9 billion, Navarro Discount Pharmacy and Target's pharmacy ​and clinic businesses

2017: CVS agrees to acquire health insurer Aetna ‌in a $69 billion deal, then the largest US healthcare merger, betting that combining insurance, pharmacy and healthcare services could help curb soaring medical costs

2018: CVS completes its acquisition of Aetna, ⁠adding health insurance to its portfolio and accelerating its push into integrated healthcare. Reuters says the purchase ultimately cost about $78 billion

2021: Karen Lynch succeeds Larry Merlo as president and CEO of CVS Health

2022: CVS agrees to acquire home healthcare services company Signify ⁠Health for about $8 billion in cash, expanding its ability to provide care in patients' homes

2023: CVS expands further into primary care ​with its $9.5 billion acquisition of Oak Street Health

2023: CVS Caremark launches TrueCost, a pharmacy benefit pricing model designed to pass negotiated drug discounts to clients and increase transparency around prescription costs

2024: Reuters reports CVS is exploring options that could include breaking up the ‌company by separating its retail and insurance businesses

2024: CVS replaces CEO Karen Lynch with company veteran David Joyner

2024-2025: The company cuts costs, closes stores, exits certain markets and ‌reshuffles senior management as it grapples with rising medical costs in its insurance business

2026: CVS plans to break up its $117 ⁠billion business, separating its retail pharmacies from Caremark ‌and Aetna.

After the split, planned for ​early 2028, the two resulting companies will both be publicly traded, and current shareholders will own shares in both.

(Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri, Vallari Srivastava and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Anil D'Silva)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• SpaceX, Tesla slide as election risks mount, Morgan Stanley turns bullish
• Turkey's parliament set to ratify defence pact with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan as Houthi attacks mount
• Medicus Pharma unit SkinJect signs non-binding SPAC merger LOI