CVS: Growing Digital Reach Contributes to Revenue Growth

CVS Health grew its revenues by 2.6% in the second quarter, crediting this year-over-year improvement in part to its growing number of digital customers, its offering of biosimilar prescriptions and its closure of underperforming stores.

“We extended our digital reach with nearly 60 million unique digital customers utilizing our platform to schedule health services appointments, fill prescriptions and purchase wellness products — all contributing to the growth in our business,” CVS Health President and CEO Karen S. Lynch said Wednesday (Aug. 7) during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Another business highlight for the quarter is that the company has processed about 100,000 Cordavis biosimilar prescriptions since April 1, saving its clients and their members nearly $400 million, CVS Health said in an earnings presentation released Wednesday in conjunction with the call.

“Biosimilars create a meaningful opportunity to deliver additional pharmacy savings to our clients,” Lynch said during the call. “Through Cordavis, we introduced our biosimilar products at a price more than 80% lower than a reference brand, and we are the only company to move biosimilar share.”

In addition, CVS Health is on track to meet its three-year goal of closing 900 stores by the end of this year, and substantially all of its remaining standalone stores are profitable, according to the presentation. Lynch said during the call that 851 stores have been closed.

While CVS Health’s second-quarter revenues were up 2.6% compared to the previous year, the company reported mixed results among its three business segments.

The Health Care Benefits segment, which offers insured and self-insured medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health products and services, saw its revenues increase 21.4% year over year, according to a Wednesday earnings release. CVS attributed this to growth in its Medicare and Commercial product lines.

The Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segment, which dispenses prescriptions and sells health and wellness products and general merchandise, saw its revenues increase 3.7%, the release said. The company said this growth was driven by increased prescription volume, which was partially offset by decreased front store volume due to its store closures and lower sales of COVID-19 test kits.

The Health Services segment, which provides pharmacy benefit management solutions, health care services and provider enablement solutions, saw its revenues decline 8.8%, per the release. CVS said the drop was due to the loss of a large client and continued pharmacy client price improvements.

Overall, Lynch said during the call: “We have many points of differentiation that position CVS Health to win. Our biggest differentiator is how we are bringing our assets together to deliver integrated solutions for our customers.”

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