By Padmanabhan Ananthan
March 23 (Reuters) – U.S. drug distributor Cencora said on Monday it would buy the retina-care business of EyeSouth Partners for $1.1 billion, bolstering its specialty medical services business.
The deal will combine the privately held eye-care network’s retina-focused doctors into Cencora’s eye-care arm, Retina Consultants of America, which it bought from private equity firm Webster Equity Partners for $4.6 billion in 2024.
Shares of the company were up over 2% in premarket trading.
Cencora has stepped up its dealmaking over the past year as it refocuses on higher-margin, specialty-focused segments and pares back non-core operations.
The drug distributor in 2025 took full control of OneOncology for $5 billion in cash, strengthening its cancer-care services.
Last month, Cencora followed up with plans to divest its MWI Animal Health unit through a merger with privately held animal health distributor Covetrus in a deal valuing the business at $3.5 billion.
J.P. Morgan’s Lisa Gill said the buyout is the third major retina-focused eye-care network bought by a distributor, following the RCA acquisition and peer McKesson’s 2025 acquisition of PRISM.
Gill said the retina drug market is set to benefit from a new wave of biosimilars, including the 2024 approval of Regeneron’s Eylea biosimilar, which she expects will deliver a meaningful profit driver for Cencora.
Cencora said its annual outlook does not include any benefit from the transaction as it does not assume it will close during its fiscal year.
The purchase should lift adjusted earnings per share in the first 12 months after the deal closes, after accounting for financing costs.
(Reporting by Padmanabhan Ananthan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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