LucyRx and Abarca Health Announce Merger to Form Healthcare Revolution Partners
Amid significant changes in the pharmaceutical industry, LucyRx and Abarca Health have announced plans to merge to build the scale needed to compete in this evolving landscape.
Formation of Healthcare Revolution Partners
Last week, the companies revealed that the union would form Healthcare Revolution Partners, which will serve as the parent organization for both LucyRx and Abarca while maintaining their existing brands. Jason Borschow, CEO of Abarca, and David Blair, CEO of LucyRx, will serve as co-chairs of the new organization, retaining their CEO titles once the transaction is completed.
The merger is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. The combined organization will serve more than 9 million members across the country.
Expanding Reach and Capabilities
In an interview with Fierce Healthcare, Blair stated that the merger would enable the companies to become “the only modern independent PBM with the track record and scale to serve both commercial and government programs.”
LucyRx has primarily focused on collaborations with employers and unions and acted as an external administrator, whereas Abarca has cultivated strong ties in government programs and with major insurers. “I think that says a lot because when you think about how our companies complement each other… it’s really just a fabulous marriage,” Blair said.
Shared Vision and Cultural Alignment
Borschow noted that the two teams met through a mutual commercial customer where LucyRx implemented part of Abarca’s proprietary Darwin Healthcare Intelligence platform last year, supporting a range of payer needs from care coordination to empowering member choice. From that point on, the similarities between the companies became clearer, he said.
“During the process, we recognized that the organizations’ culture, vision, and values are highly aligned, which is not common in this industry and in healthcare in general,” Borschow said. “It really brought us closer together and we were able to have different conversations about how we can meet the current market situation.”
Maintaining Continuity Amid Rising Costs
A key goal is to maintain continuity for existing customers, who will not feel daily disruptions as teams remain separate, the companies said. However, coming together allows both to continue building for the future, especially as rising costs cause more employers and plans to consider alternatives to traditional PBMs.
As healthcare costs rise, driven in large part by drugs like GLP-1, employers are expecting PBMs to step up and help them manage costs. A June 2025 report from the Pharmaceutical Strategies Group found a growing awareness among employers of “unbundling,” where PBM services are built more modularly with multiple providers rather than relying on one organization for each service.
The most prominent example is Blue Shield of California’s Pharmacy Care Reimagined model, where the insurer ended its traditional PBM agreement with CVS Health’s Caremark to rely on five different partners to provide different services. Abarca is one of the providers involved in the program, emphasized Borschow.
Industry Pressures and Future Outlook
In addition to pressure from customers, PBMs face significant scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators. In February, Congress passed several industry reforms as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
“The Consolidated Appropriations Act, passed earlier this year, is the final trigger for the end of the current PBM model as we know it, and that provides tremendous tailwinds for modern, transparent, independent PBMs like Abarca and Lucy,” Borschow said.
Blair mentioned that part of the appeal of alternative PBMs like LucyRx and Abarca is that they are not vertically integrated with insurers or pharmacies, nor are they affiliated with drugmakers. That transparency is attractive to potential customers who are tired of the status quo, he said.
The merger aims to build the necessary scale to reach new potential customer bases, such as large employers, said Borschow. Given the interest, he expects perhaps not the emergence of new “Big Three” for the industry, but rather the emergence of new industry leaders.
“I think market shares are going to shift significantly over the next few years,” Blair said. “There will be new companies that have captured the lion’s share of the market share by adopting some of the characteristics we have described.”
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