Amazon Stimulates the United States Pharmaceutical Industry to Accelerate Integration
After obtaining the support of the vast majority of corporate shareholders, the largest merger and acquisition case in the world's pharmaceutical industry in ten years has been closer to reach . At a special meeting on Tuesday, March 13 local time, more than 98% of the shareholders of CVS Health, the largest drug retailer in the United States, agreed to acquire Aetna, and 97% of Aetna shareholders also favored the deal. This means a step closer to the formal acquisition of Aetna Insurance by CVS. At present, the two companies have to wait for the US Department of Justice to approve the transaction. CVS expects to complete the merger in the second half of this year. CVS recently announced plans to issue bonds valued at US$44 billion to help it pay up to US$69 billion in medical insurance company Aetna, the largest corporate bond offering in more than two years. It is also the first in the scale of corporate bonds in the medical field. According to the media, this big acquisition shows that with the frequent news that Amazon has entered the US medical distribution field, the pharmaceutical industry has begun to accelerate integration. Also this month, health insurance company Cigna has paid a premium of nearly 31% and $67 billion to buy drug welfare management giant Express Scripts, including the latter’s US$15 billion in debt. Some analysts believe that Amazon's threat to enter the industry may have stimulated Cigna to reach the deal.