Cencora announced Monday it has a definitive agreement in place to purchase a retina specialist network for $1.1 billion, the drug distributor and services company’s latest investment into specialty medical services.
The deal for EyeSouth Partners’ retina business is not expected to close before Sept. 30, the end of Cencora’s fiscal year, and is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
Should it close, Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen) would bring EyeSouth Partners’ affiliated retina physicians into its Retina Consultants of America (RCA), a management services organization in which Cencora purchased an 85% interest for $4.6 billion over a year ago.
RCA is the country’s largest network of retina centers, listing on its website several dozen partnered practices across multiple states. It also operates a premier clinical research network with 75 active site studies, according to its website.
“Driven by a commitment to empower ophthalmologists, EyeSouth Partners has built a strong regional network of physicians that provides high quality patient care,” Robert P. Mauch, president and CEO of Cencora, said in Monday’s announcement. “By joining RCA, these physicians will become part of an organization with capabilities designed to provide world-class retina care and be supported by Cencora’s longstanding commitment to community physicians.”
EyeSouth is a another management services organization with a network of integrated eye care practices spanning more than 400 doctors in 14 states, of which its retina care specialists are a subset.
Joining up with Cencora’s RCA will allow the retina specialists to direct patients to “innovative treatments through RCA’s clinical trial and research offerings” while maintaining an open door to the rest of EyeSouth Partners’ ophthalmologists, EyeSouth Partners Board Member Atul Sharma, M.D., said in the announcement.
Cencora said it expects the purchase to be slightly accretive, net financing costs, to its adjusted diluted earnings per share within the first year of the deal’s close.
Cencora and its competitors have fully embraced dealmaking for high-margin specialty care services and providers. Cancer care networks have been a particular hot spot for the companies—for example, just a few months ago the company announced another deal to accelerate its buyout of OneOncology, a specialty practice network now valued at $7.4 billion.
Meanwhile, McKesson Corporation, another drug distributor and services giant, wrapped its own acquisition last year of an 80% interest in ophthalmology and retina management services organization PRISM Vision Holdings for $850 million.
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