Cigna to pay $52B for Express Scripts

Health insurer Cigna is buying the nation’s biggest pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, the latest in a string of proposed tie-ups as health care’s bill payers attempt to get a grip on rising costs.

The $52 billion deal announced Thursday follows the drugstore chain CVS Health Corp.’s roughly $69 billion bid to buy the insurer Aetna Inc., an acquisition the companies detailed in December.