CVS-Aetna Hurts Competition Even With Asset Sold, Judge Is Told

CVS Health Corp.’s $68 billion purchase of Aetna Inc. will decrease competition in health care, even though Aetna sold its Medicare prescription-drug business to Wellcare Health Plans Inc. to help secure regulatory approval, an economist told a federal judge.

“No matter how strong Wellcare gets,” there will remain significant competitive concerns in some markets, University of Southern California professor Neeraj Sood said June 4 in Washington before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.

Sood testified as part of a hearing over CVS’s settlement with U.S. antitrust officials that allowed the pharmacy chain, which has more than 9,900 retail outlets, to acquire ...