Drug distribution giant Cencora is boosting its reach in medical specialties
The deal will secure part of Cencora's customer base for lucrative cancer drugs. The Conshohocken company also control a management company for retina specialists.
Cencora Inc., a drug-distribution giant based in Conshohocken, is expanding its presence in oncology and retina care, two medical specialties that rely heavily on pharmaceuticals.
The company announced on Dec. 15 that it had agreed to buy out its private-equity partner in a national cancer practice management company, OneOncology, for $5 billion in cash and debt.
Cencora already owned 35% of OneOncology, which has a small presence in the Philadelphia area.
In January, Cencora spent $5 billion, including contingency payments, for Retina Consultants of America, a network of specialized practices with locations in 23 states, including two in Pennsylvania outside the Philadelphia area.
The deals are part of Cencora’s effort to extend its reach into medical specialties that rely heavily on pharmaceuticals to treat patients. By positioning itself closer to patients, Cencora can capture more of the profit margin that goes along with selling drugs.
“We like those two spaces because they’re pharmaceutical centric,” Cencora’s CEO Robert Mauch said at the 2025 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. He said the company doesn’t see other specialties with the same makeup as oncology and retina.
“That’s where we will continue to focus,” he said. “Now as we look forward, there could be other specialties. There could be other innovations in the pharma industry that create something in another area.”
Cencora had $321 billion in revenue in its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. It had $1.5 billion in net income. That’s a great deal of money, but amounted to less than half a percent of its revenue.
McKesson and Cardinal Health, Cencora’s two biggest U.S. competitors in the drug-distribution business, face similarly narrow margins from drug distribution. Both also own companies that manage cancer practices. Among the benefits of owning the management companies is securing the customer base.
Cencora’s follow-up to 2023 deal
Cencora, then known as AmerisourceBergen, paid $718.4 million for a 35% stake in OneOncology in June 2023. That deal, in partnership with TPG, valued OneOncology at $2.1 billion. The seller was General Atlantic, a private equity firm that had invested $200 million in the Nashville management services company in 2018, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The deal announced last week valued OneOncology at $7.4 billion, including debt. The big increase in value came thanks to a doubling in the company’s size. OneOncology now has 31 practices with 1,800 providers who treat 1 million patients across 565 sites, according to the company.
Rittenhouse Hematology Oncology, which has offices in Bala Cynwyd, Brinton Lake, King of Prussia, and Philadelphia, became part of OneOncology last year.