Walgreens to divest home infusion services for $330M

Walgreens Boots Alliance’s latest divestiture involves selling off the remainder of its portion of home infusion services provider Option Care Health for $330 million, reports Forbes. 

Walgreens intends to use the proceeds primarily to pay down debt, continue support of the company’s strategic priorities, and transform to a consumer-centric healthcare company.

Since CEO Rosalind “Roz” Brewer took the controls several years ago, her focus for the company has been on getting additional doctors and other medical personnel into the stores for more face-to-face healthcare. 

To get to that place, Walgreens has been divesting … a lot. About a month ago, the company sold shares of drug distributor AmerisourceBergen for proceeds of $694 million. Last December, Walgreens’ investment in AmerisourceBergen was reduced 20% for proceeds of $1 billion.

To further bolster those efforts, Walgreens has also invested in primary care provider VillageMD, which recently bought Summit Health for $8.9 billion. It was Walgreen’s first move in the on-site healthcare business, which has become highly competitive over the last year. 

CVS, Amazon, and Walmart have all moved forward with their face-to-face healthcare strategies. CVS has perhaps made the most noise recently behind its $8 billion acquisition of Signify Health and $10.6 billion acquisition of Oak Street Health. Both Signify Health and Oak Street Health, used mostly by senior citizens, carry a network of staffed clinics. 

Related:Former Walgreens CEO suing the company for over $200M

Signify Health is perhaps best known for its home health business. Oak Street’s Medicare-focused services complement CVS’s own assets, including its 1,100-plus MinuteClinics. 

The merger also enhanced access to CVS’s nurse practitioner workforce, and CVS can now provide “wraparound” services such as medication reconciliation and post-discharge follow-ups. By 2026, Oak Street Health expects to operate more than 300 centers. CVS also owns health insurer Aetna.

Amazon has moved into this space too, with the purchase of  One Medical, which has 220 primary care offices in over 28 markets.Walmart also has its Walmart Health centers, where patients are able to see a doctor.