Brazil Health-Care Firms Push to Reduce Debt as Shares Sink

Brazilian health-care companies are taking steps to lower their debt burdens after a wave of ferocious dealmaking, combined with increasing operating costs and higher interest rates left their finances vulnerable.

Diagnosticos da America SA, the country’s largest medical diagnostics company, is considering options to raise cash that include a combination of asset sales, new partners, a capital injection from its controlling holder and re-negotiating obligations, a person familiar with the matter said. Elfa Medicamentos, a drug retailer backed by Patria Investimentos Ltd., is looking to sell non-core assets to cut leverage, according to another person.

Health-care firms took advantage ...