Who Owns Omnicare?

Omnicare was incorporated on May 19, 1981, under the laws of Delaware as a spinoff of healthcare businesses from Chemed Corporation and W.R. Grace and Company. Edward L. Hutton, a longtime W.R. Grace officer, was chosen as chairman, and Joel F. Gemunder was named president. Both had previously been executives at Chemed, which itself had been spun off from W.R. Grace in 1971. Omnicare began publicly trading its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange in July 1981 under the ticker symbol OCR.

In its early years, Omnicare operated a diversified healthcare business. In 1985, the company began emphasizing pharmacy services for long-term care facilities, a strategic pivot that would define its future. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Omnicare divested non-pharmacy businesses, completing its transition to a geriatric pharmaceutical services company by 1992 with the sale of the Veratex Group.

Under Gemunder's leadership, Omnicare completed more than 200 acquisitions in the healthcare industry over nearly three decades. Major acquisitions included NeighborCare, Inc. in 2005 for $1.6 billion and excelleRx in 2005 for $269 million. The company grew to become the largest provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities in the United States, serving skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, and other institutional healthcare providers.

In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission sued Omnicare to block its hostile takeover of rival PharMerica, alleging that the merger would reduce price competition and inflate Medicare expenditures. Omnicare owned approximately 200 long-term care pharmacies, while PharMerica owned 97. The combined entity would have held a 57% market share. The takeover was terminated due to FTC opposition.

CVS Health acquired Omnicare in August 2015 for approximately $12.9 billion in total enterprise value. The acquisition was completed on August 18, 2015. CVS Health integrated Omnicare as its long-term care pharmacy division, leveraging Omnicare's relationships with nursing homes and senior living communities to expand its healthcare reach.

Under CVS Health ownership, Omnicare continued to operate as the nation's largest provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities. The business served over 800,000 patients per year and employed approximately 2,178 people. However, Omnicare's operations were affected by a major legal case that ultimately led to its bankruptcy.

In 2019, the federal government joined a lawsuit accusing Omnicare of routinely filling prescriptions that had expired or run out of refills. The Department of Justice alleged that Omnicare's pharmacies sent drugs to residents of long-term care facilities based on "stale, invalid prescriptions" and fraudulently billed government-funded programs including Medicaid, Medicare, and Tricare for drugs dispensed without valid prescriptions from 2010 to 2018.

In April 2025, a federal jury in the Southern District of New York found Omnicare and CVS Health Corporation liable for violations of the False Claims Act. Damages were assessed only against Omnicare. CVS Health recorded a litigation charge of $387 million in the first quarter of 2025 and an additional $542 million charge in the second quarter for penalties, totaling $929 million in charges. The total judgment was $949 million.

On September 22, 2025, Omnicare filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. The company listed up to $10 billion in debt and up to $500 million in assets. Omnicare secured $110 million in debtor-in-possession financing to maintain operations during the restructuring process. CVS Health deconsolidated Omnicare from its financial statements upon the bankruptcy filing, determining it no longer retained control of the entity.

Omnicare stated that it intended to use the bankruptcy process to address financial challenges facing the broader long-term care pharmacy industry and to evaluate restructuring options, including a standalone restructuring or sale strategy.