NEW YORK — McKesson and private-equity giant Clayton, Dubilier & Rice are closing in on a deal worth more than $5 billion for Option Care Health, a transaction that could transform one of America’s largest home-infusion providers into a major new pillar of McKesson’s specialty-care strategy.
The proposed acquisition would value Option Care at more than $5 billion including debt, according to the Financial Times and Reuters.
Under the structure currently being discussed, CD&R would own 51% of Option Care and McKesson would hold 49%, with McKesson potentially gaining the right to purchase CD&R’s controlling stake later.
An agreement could be announced as early as October 6.
But there is an important caveat:
no definitive transaction had been publicly announced at the latest check, and the negotiations could still collapse.
That distinction matters because Option Care’s shares have already reacted as though a transaction may be coming.
The stock surged roughly 21% to 22% in after-hours trading after the report emerged.
The reason investors reacted so strongly goes beyond the price.
Option Care sits at the center of one of the biggest structural shifts in U.S. healthcare:
moving expensive treatments out of hospitals and into homes and specialized outpatient infusion centers.
Option Care is the largest independent home-infusion company in America
Option Care describes itself as the largest independent provider of home and alternate-site infusion services in the United States.
The company served more than 315,000 patients in 2025 and operates a nationwide network that includes home-based services and roughly 184 care centers.
Its nurses, pharmacists and clinicians administer specialty medications used for conditions including:
cancer;
autoimmune diseases;
serious infections;
immune deficiencies;
and complex chronic illnesses.
Some of those treatments previously required patients to spend hours inside hospitals.
Increasingly, they can be administered at home or at dedicated infusion centers.
That makes Option Care strategically valuable to almost every major participant in U.S. healthcare.
McKesson is no longer satisfied with being just a drug distributor
McKesson is already one of the largest pharmaceutical distributors in the world.
But its strategy has increasingly shifted toward owning higher-value healthcare services rather than relying primarily on moving drugs from manufacturers to pharmacies and hospitals.
In August, McKesson agreed to buy Precision Medicine Group for about $2.25 billion, expanding its capabilities in clinical research and biopharmaceutical commercialization.
McKesson said that transaction would strengthen its Oncology & Multispecialty business, particularly in clinical trials, biomarkers, market access and drug commercialization.
A deal for Option Care would push that strategy one step further.
Instead of simply supporting doctors and drug companies, McKesson would gain direct exposure to where many specialty medicines are actually administered.
That gives it a much larger role across the entire drug lifecycle.
McKesson could control more of the specialty-drug chain
The strategic logic is relatively straightforward.
McKesson already distributes expensive specialty medicines.
It works closely with oncology and specialist physician practices.
It is expanding clinical-research services.
Option Care would add:
pharmacy compounding;
nursing;
patient monitoring;
insurance coordination;
infusion centers;
and home administration.
That means McKesson could potentially participate in more steps between a drug leaving the manufacturer and the patient actually receiving the treatment.
Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny told Reuters that the strategic rationale made sense because Option Care would extend McKesson from physician practices into home and alternate-site care settings.
That is likely the bigger prize.
Home infusion can cost less than hospital treatment
Healthcare payers have powerful incentives to move eligible treatments outside hospitals.
Hospital outpatient departments can be expensive.
A treatment administered in the home or at a dedicated infusion center can often carry lower facility costs while also being more convenient for patients.
Option Care itself identifies the shift toward lower-cost home and alternate-site care as one of the biggest long-term forces driving its business.
The company says several trends are accelerating that transition:
an aging population;
greater disease complexity;
patient preference for receiving care at home;
payer pressure to reduce treatment costs;
and the growth of specialty biologic drugs that can safely be administered outside traditional hospitals.
That makes home infusion attractive not simply because patients like it.
Insurers like the potential savings.
The U.S. home-infusion market could nearly double
Industry forecasts underline why McKesson and private equity are interested.
Fortune Business Insights estimates the U.S. home-infusion therapy market at about $23.6 billion in 2026, rising toward roughly $49.8 billion by 2034.
That would represent annual growth of close to 10%.
Other market studies differ on the exact size and growth rate, but the directional trend is consistent:
more specialty treatment is moving away from hospitals and into outpatient or home settings.
Growth is being driven by:
biologics;
immune-globulin therapies;
specialty medicines;
nutrition therapies;
long-term antibiotics;
and treatment of chronic diseases.
If those forecasts are even broadly correct, Option Care owns infrastructure in one of healthcare’s most attractive long-term growth markets.
Option Care generated $5.65 billion in revenue last year
Option Care’s financial scale is substantial.
The company reported $5.65 billion of 2025 revenue, up 13% year over year.
Adjusted EBITDA reached $471.3 million, while net income was about $207.6 million.
It also generated $258.4 million of operating cash flow and repurchased $307 million of its own shares during the year.
Those numbers help explain why the proposed purchase price is above $5 billion.
Option Care is not a speculative healthcare startup.
It is already a large national operation serving hundreds of thousands of patients.
But 2026 has exposed some weakness
The acquisition interest is coming after a much more difficult year for Option Care’s stock.
Before the takeover report, shares had fallen about 27% in 2026.
That decline reflected slower growth.
In the first quarter, Option Care reported revenue growth of just 1.3%, while adjusted EBITDA fell 6.3%.
CEO John Rademacher openly acknowledged that management was not satisfied with revenue growth momentum and said the company was taking steps to accelerate growth.
The company lowered or reset parts of its outlook and shifted more attention toward operational execution and share repurchases.
That weakness may have made Option Care more attractive to potential buyers.
Second-quarter results improved—but growth remained modest
Option Care’s second-quarter performance was better.
Revenue reached $1.44 billion, up 1.9%.
Net income increased 6.7% to $53.9 million.
Adjusted EBITDA climbed 3% to $117.5 million.
But gross margin fell from 19% to 18.5%.
For the first six months of 2026, revenue increased only 1.6%, while gross profit actually slipped slightly.
That is an unusual backdrop for a takeover.
Option Care operates in an attractive market.
Its own near-term growth has been relatively weak.
That creates exactly the sort of setup private-equity firms often find interesting.
CD&R may see a classic private-equity opportunity
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice specializes in large leveraged buyouts and corporate transformations.
The FT reports that CD&R is currently raising a new fund worth around $26 billion and has been active across healthcare and other service industries.
Option Care fits a familiar private-equity formula:
large;
cash-generative;
strategically valuable;
operating in a growing sector;
but trading below its previous valuation because short-term performance disappointed investors.
Private equity can buy such a company, restructure operations away from quarterly-market pressure and attempt to accelerate profitability.
The proposed partnership with McKesson adds another advantage:
a strategic industry buyer already knows how the healthcare ecosystem works.
The 51%-49% structure is unusual—and revealing
If the FT’s reported structure holds, CD&R would own a 51% controlling stake, while McKesson would own 49%.
That means McKesson would initially avoid fully owning the business.
But the reported option allowing McKesson to purchase CD&R’s stake later could create a staged path toward eventual full ownership.
There are several possible reasons such a structure could be attractive.
It spreads financing risk.
It allows CD&R to oversee the initial private-equity transformation.
It gives McKesson immediate strategic access without absorbing the entire purchase price upfront.
And if the integration works, McKesson could potentially take full control later.
Exact details, however, remain unconfirmed until a definitive agreement is announced.
The deal would accelerate McKesson’s transformation
McKesson has spent years reshaping its business portfolio.
In April, Apollo agreed to invest $1.25 billion for roughly a 13% minority interest in McKesson’s Medical-Surgical Solutions business, valuing that unit at about $13 billion.
McKesson plans to separate that business ahead of an eventual IPO.
At the same time, it has been putting more capital into oncology, specialty medicine, clinical research and higher-growth healthcare services.
That creates a strategic pattern.
McKesson is reducing exposure to slower-growing or less strategic operations—
and redeploying money into areas connected with complex specialty care.
Option Care fits directly into that shift.
Oncology is particularly important
McKesson’s Oncology & Multispecialty segment has become one of its fastest-growing businesses.
Reuters reported that revenue in the division jumped 33% in its latest reported quarter, supported by specialty distribution and acquisitions.
Specialty medicines are increasingly important because many of the pharmaceutical industry’s most valuable products target:
cancer;
rare diseases;
autoimmune conditions;
and other complex illnesses.
Those products can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient each year.
Managing their distribution, administration and reimbursement can therefore be much more profitable than distributing ordinary generic medications.
Option Care puts McKesson closer to those patients.
Hospitals could be the biggest competitive loser
If home and outpatient infusion continues gaining share, hospitals may lose certain high-margin treatments.
Hospital outpatient departments often receive substantially higher reimbursement for services than lower-cost alternatives.
Insurers and employers therefore increasingly use site-of-care programs that encourage eligible patients to receive treatment somewhere cheaper.
Option Care highlights payer pressure as a major structural driver of its industry.
This creates tension across U.S. healthcare.
Hospitals need revenue.
Insurers want lower costs.
Patients generally prefer convenience.
Companies such as Option Care profit by sitting directly between those pressures.
More drugs can now be infused outside hospitals
Pharmaceutical innovation is also expanding the addressable market.
Many newer biologics require intravenous or subcutaneous administration but do not necessarily require a full hospital setting.
Option Care points to the expanding pipeline of:
specialty drugs;
biologics;
rare-disease treatments;
and biosimilars
as major long-term growth drivers.
That means every newly approved treatment potentially creates another recurring revenue stream for infusion providers.
The opportunity is not simply gaining market share from hospitals.
The total number of therapies requiring specialized administration is itself increasing.
An aging population adds another tailwind
Demographics also support the model.
Older patients generally need more treatment.
Chronic illnesses become more common with age.
And many people prefer to stay out of hospitals whenever possible.
Option Care specifically identifies aging-in-place as one of the secular trends supporting home infusion.
As America’s population ages, demand for services that deliver complex care without requiring hospitalization is likely to keep growing.
That makes home infusion part of the much broader shift toward home-based healthcare.
The market remains fragmented despite Option Care’s size
Another attraction for investors is consolidation.
Industry estimates suggest Option Care has a leading position but still controls only a minority of total U.S. home-infusion activity.
A March industry analysis estimated Option Care at roughly 26% market share, followed by UnitedHealth’s Optum at around 21%, with almost half the market still divided among regional and smaller providers.
That leaves room for acquisitions.
A well-capitalized owner could potentially buy smaller operators and fold them into a national platform.
That is exactly the kind of strategy both private equity and McKesson know well.
Scale matters increasingly in specialty medicine
Large infusion providers can have advantages that smaller competitors struggle to match.
They can negotiate with insurers across multiple states.
They can invest in technology.
They can gain access to limited-distribution specialty drugs.
They can operate national pharmacy and logistics systems.
They can recruit specialized nurses.
They can build relationships with hospital systems and physician groups.
They can also spread administrative and compliance costs across a larger patient base.
That makes scale increasingly important as infusion therapies become more complicated.
Option Care already possesses much of that infrastructure.
The deal would also deepen McKesson’s relationships with drugmakers
Pharmaceutical companies care about what happens after a specialty drug receives regulatory approval.
They need:
distribution;
patient enrollment;
insurance authorization;
clinical support;
adherence monitoring;
and data.
McKesson’s recent Precision Medicine acquisition was explicitly designed to strengthen the company’s relationship with biopharma companies from clinical research through commercialization.
Option Care would extend that relationship into drug administration.
That means McKesson could potentially support a therapy from clinical development all the way through the patient’s infusion chair or living room.
Few healthcare companies have that breadth.
That could also attract antitrust scrutiny
The same strategic integration that makes the transaction appealing could attract regulators.
McKesson is already a major pharmaceutical distributor.
Option Care is the largest independent U.S. home-infusion provider.
A combination would increase McKesson’s influence across specialty-drug distribution and administration.
No antitrust challenge has been announced because no definitive transaction has yet been disclosed.
But if a deal is signed, regulators would likely examine:
market concentration;
relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers;
insurer contracting;
and whether McKesson could favor its own infusion network.
The exact regulatory risk will depend heavily on the final ownership structure.
Why shares jumped 22%
Option Care’s market reaction shows investors believe a takeover could materially improve shareholder value.
Before the report, the company’s enterprise value was around $4.6 billion, including approximately $1.2 billion of debt.
The reported transaction value exceeds $5 billion.
That implies some takeover premium.
But the exact per-share purchase price has not been made public.
Investors therefore do not yet know precisely how much shareholders would receive.
That is why current trading remains driven partly by speculation rather than signed transaction terms.
The deal could also be a validation of Option Care after a difficult year
Option Care’s stock decline suggested investors were losing patience with slower growth.
A $5-billion-plus bid sends a different message.
Strategic buyers may believe the company’s long-term assets are worth more than the public market was giving it credit for.
Those assets include:
national scale;
payer relationships;
specialty pharmacy capabilities;
thousands of clinicians;
hundreds of thousands of patients;
and a position in a healthcare channel growing faster than many traditional hospital businesses.
In that sense, the takeover interest itself is a vote of confidence in the home-infusion model.
But private ownership will not fix every problem automatically
Option Care still faces real operating challenges.
Revenue growth has slowed.
Margins remain under pressure.
Specialty-drug costs continue rising.
Insurers are aggressive about reimbursement.
Nurses remain expensive and difficult to recruit.
And managing medically complex patients outside hospitals carries clinical and logistical risk.
A takeover changes the owners.
It does not remove those problems.
CD&R and McKesson would still need to prove that they can accelerate growth without compromising patient care.
The real story is bigger than a $5 billion buyout
The headline transaction is large.
But the structural story may be more important.
American healthcare is slowly moving away from the assumption that complex treatment must happen inside an expensive hospital.
More care is shifting toward:
homes;
physician offices;
ambulatory centers;
and specialty clinics.
Insurers prefer it because it can cost less.
Patients often prefer it because it is more convenient.
Drugmakers benefit because new therapies can reach patients through more settings.
Companies controlling those settings are becoming strategically valuable.
That is why McKesson and CD&R appear willing to pay more than $5 billion for Option Care.
They are not simply buying pharmacies, nurses and infusion chairs.
They are buying a front-row position in the migration of high-cost healthcare away from hospitals.
And if that migration accelerates as expected, the biggest question may not be whether Option Care is worth $5 billion today.
It may be whether McKesson is positioning itself to control one of the most important channels through which tomorrow’s most expensive medicines actually reach patients.
