Cigna CEO Says Health Insurer Is Open to More Acquisitions

(Bloomberg) -- Cigna Corp. is open to making more acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer David Cordani said, almost a year after the health insurer bought drug-benefit manager Express Scripts.

An expected $8 billion in free cash flow in 2020 should give Cigna “strategic optionality,” Cordani said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s David Westin at the Economic Club of New York on Wednesday.

“We think that’s important in an environment of perpetual change,” he said.

Cordani’s remarks also touched on health-care costs, Medicare-for-all proposals, and the company’s business in China.

He said the integration of Express Scripts has gone well since the deal closed in December. The combination allowed Cigna to offer insulin-dependent diabetics the medication for a flat $25 monthly fee, Cordani said.

Cordani gave more details about the company’s new gene-therapy initiative, called Embarc, which Cordani described as a “not-for-profit” entity that will allow corporations and public health programs to purchase specialty pharmaceuticals.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Tozzi in New York at jtozzi2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net, Timothy Annett

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