Cigna Corp

Victoria Klesty | ReutersIn the U.S., Wegovy is no longer just for weight loss.The blockbuster drug — one of a handful of weight loss treatments to skyrocket in popularity over the last year — is now approved in the U.S. for heart health, too. But that may not translate to wider insurance coverage of the weekly injection drug from Novo Nordisk and similar obesity treatments just yet.Some employers and other health plans are still reluctant to cover Wegovy due to its hefty $1,350 monthly price tag, which they say could…

Injection pens of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy are shown in this photo illustration in Oslo, Norway, Nov. 21, 2023.Victoria Klesty | ReutersCigna on Thursday unveiled a new effort to expand insurance coverage for weight loss drugs by limiting how much health plans and employers spend on the highly popular treatments each year. The move comes as many insurers mull whether they should cover those drugs or drop them from their plans altogether due to their high costs. Americans have flocked to the treatments, along…

Signage is displayed on a Humana Inc. office building in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2019. Humana is scheduled to release earnings figures on February 6. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of Humana plummeted on Thursday after the health insurer issued dismal full-year earnings guidance, citing soaring medical costs that are dogging the broader insurance industry.Those expenses have spiked as an increasing number of older adults return to…

Tyson Foods Inc., sign at Tyson headquarters in Springdale, Ark.April L. Brown | APTyson Foods will become one of the first Fortune 100 companies to stop using the nation's traditional large pharmacy benefits managers, as it looks to cut spending on high-cost drugs.   After putting its benefits contract up for bid, Tyson dropped CVS Health's Caremark and chose PBM startup Rightway to manage drug benefits for its 140,000 employees starting this year, the companies said Wednesday. Rightway guarantees that it can save…

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesEli Lilly is shaking up the pharmaceutical industry with a new website offering telehealth prescriptions and direct home delivery of certain drugs, including its red-hot weight loss treatment Zepbound, to expand patient access. The company's direct-to-consumer push announced Thursday, the first of its kind for a big drugmaker, won't necessarily upend the pharmaceutical industry and the prescription drug supply chain alone, according to some analysts.But other drugmakers could follow…

An employee works on the production line of pharmaceutical company Zentiva in Prague, Czech Republic, May 6, 2021.David W. Cerny | ReutersThe health-care sector has wiped out much of its losses for the year during the December market rally. Beaten-down biotech and medical device makers have seen the biggest rebound this month, and analysts see that momentum continuing in the new year.Still, analysts and strategists have a mixed outlook for the sector in 2024."We're entering the year as an underweight," said Sam Stovall,…

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesShares of Cigna jumped Monday following reports that the health-care giant has scrapped its plans to buy rival Humana due to disagreements on price, putting an early end to what would have been one of the largest deals of the decade.Cigna late Sunday also announced plans to buy back $10 billion worth of shares, bringing its total planned repurchases to $11.3 billion. The company said in a release that it will consider smaller, "bolt-on" acquisitions in the near term, but did not…

The FDA approves Eli Lilly's Zepbound, a weight loss drug similar to Ozempic and Wegovy.Courtesy: Eli LillyEli Lilly on Tuesday said its recently approved weight loss treatment Zepbound is now available at pharmacies across the U.S., serving as an alternative to rival obesity drugs such as Wegovy that are facing supply issues. Zepbound is the latest entrant to the budding weight loss drug market, which Wall Street expects to grow to about $100 billion by the end of the decade.High demand for the treatments has resulted in…

A sign outside a CVS Health store in Miami, Aug. 1, 2023.Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesCVS Health on Tuesday said will revamp how it prices prescription drugs and scrap a complex model that typically sets how much pharmacies get reimbursed and what patients pay for those medications.The new effort makes CVS the latest company to try to upend the traditional prescription drug pricing system, which has faced years of political scrutiny for what critics call a lack of transparency and inflated health-care costs for U.S.…

The Cigna Group headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut, US, on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. BlooJoe Buglewicz | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of Cigna slid on Wednesday after a report that the company is in talks with Humana about a merger between the two health care giants. Spokespeople for Cigna and Humana did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report from the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. The companies are discussing a stock-and-cash deal that could be finalized by…