Walgreens push into comprehensive care picks up momentum

Walgreens extended its push into more comprehensive health care with its VillageMD unit acquiring another urgent and primary care chain, Summit Health-CityMD, in a deal worth close to $9 billion. The deal to combine VillageMD and CityMD arrives just two months after CVS Health said it would pay about $8 billion to acquire Signify Health, a technology company that sends doctors and other care providers to people’s homes to assess how they are doing and what help they might need. Walgreens, which has about 13,000 retail pharmacy locations worldwide including 9,000 in the U.S, has invested billions of dollars in Village MD and is opening primary care practices next to its drugstores so that pharmacies and physician offices can more easily work together. When Walgreens released details of its annual financial performance last month, CEO Rosalind Brewer proclaimed it was the first year of Walgreens’ “transformation to a consumer-centric health care company.” Citing the combination of VillageMD and CityMD, Walgreens raised its 2025 U.S. health care sales goal to between $14.5 billion and $16 billion, up from the previous forecast range of $11 billion to $12 billion.