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CVS edits its health playbook

Scoop: Hack-fueled fundraise

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Full steam into scrutiny

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Sentra scopes deals

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Driving the day

🚨 Deals Deals Deals!

Final numbers 

CVS is betting a breakup will bring greater operational agility as it rethinks the integrated health care model it spent years building.

Between the lines: The move also provides some proactive cover from mounting antitrust scrutiny.

Context: Regulatory heat on CVS has intensified over the past 18 months, primarily over its pharmacy benefit practices and vertically integrated business model.

In July, CVS reached a proposed settlement with the FTC that seeks to resolve its antitrust case and broader investigations into its PBM and pharmacy business.

The company still faces lawsuits over drug pricing and rebate practices, as well as investigations by DOJ, HHS and state regulators.

What they're saying: "They definitely bought themselves time at the very least," says West Monroe M&A partner Alex Torgerson. "I think there will continue to be questions about [whether] insurers and PBMs [should] be bundled together."

Reality check: The breakup keeps CVS' most closely examined businesses — pharmacy benefit manager Caremark and insurer Aetna — together.

"This enables us to maintain and expand integration where it matters," CEO David Joyner said on an earnings call today. 

Zoom in: Its retail pharmacy assets, including MinuteClinic urgent care sites, will be separate from its health portfolio, which also encompasses Signify Health, Oak Street Health and CVS Specialty. 

Health100, its health navigation platform that is part of CVS Pharmacy, will be the connective tissue between the two, Joyner said. 

The move reflects challenges others (looking at you Walgreens) have faced marrying physical pharmacy and care delivery. 

"The future physical pharmacy has to be more than a place to pick up drugs they don't want to get through the mail or return an Amazon package," says Elliott Davis Advisory director Matt Wolf.

The bottom line: Today's announcement doesn't necessarily foreshadow another breakup — but it could lower some of the structural barriers to one. 

1. CVS edits its health playbook

Animated illustration of a long store receipt ripping in two.

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

The largest crypto theft in history is already spurring new investment into crypto security.

Case in point: Blockaid, a real-time onchain security and threat-prevention platform, has collected $40 million in commitments in the days following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, a source familiar tells Axios Pro. 

Inside the room: Blockaid's raise is ongoing and is expected to be led by Blockchain Capital and joined by previous investors, the source says.

By the numbers: Blockaid has raised about $80 million to date from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Greylock, GV and Cyberstarts.

The 130-person startup says it has hundreds of customers, including Kraken and Coinbase, and tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

Catch up quick: Binance said this week North Korea appears to have used a fake job interview as part of its monthslong preparations to steal crypto.

The bottom line: The Binance hack gave crypto security fundraising a rocket boost.

2. Scoop: Hack-fueled fundraise

Yesterday's midterm election victories handed Democratic lawmakers more opportunity to probe the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern megamerger.

The big picture: Democrats have promised to conduct sweeping oversight investigations, including into corporate actions that raise consumer prices.

Catch up quick: U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and rival railroad CPKC have called for the release of a video of Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena's alleged threat to raise rates on shippers who oppose the merger.

Union Pacific last week appealed a federal judge's ruling ordering the video to be made public.

CPKC cited Union Pacific's resistance to release the video as reason for the Surface Transportation Board to end the review and reject the deal.

What we're watching: Democratic congressional committees could subpoena the video, additional documents or even testimony from Vena.

Donations by Union Pacific and other companies to the White House ballroom could put them in the crosshairs of investigations by Democratic lawmakers next year.

Reality check: Congress doesn't control the deal's regulatory review, so hearings or legislative action may do little beyond worsening its optics.

A pair of merger opponents running for Senate lost their races: Nebraska independent Dan Osborn and incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas.

The Surface Transportation Board, which will ultimately approve or reject the merger application, already plans to hold a public hearing.

What they're saying: "You can bet that I will pull whatever levers I have to stop this bad deal and call out the Trump administration for putting railroad lobbyists and wealthy donors ahead of Wisconsin businesses, farmers, and families," Baldwin tells Axios Pro.

"We work with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and will continue to do so," Union Pacific spokesperson Kristen South tells Axios Pro.

3. Full steam into scrutiny

Cybersecurity startup Sentra will weigh tech acquisitions as AI raises the stakes for data security, CEO Yoav Regev tells Axios Pro.

The company raised a $150 million Series C round led by Capital One Ventures, it said today.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Axios Pro: Will you look at M&A with this funding?

Regev: "For sure... There are at least two areas that we are looking for, asking ourselves how we can do it even faster. One area is the [data loss prevention] technology. We see a lot of great technology there, so maybe we can take it. And the other one is... the agentic AI area.

It's very hard to grow only by yourself all the time. So this is part of the way to push yourself to the next level."

"I told [our employees] about the C round on a Thursday. Then on Monday, I told them I'm starting the D round.

It was kind of a joke, but it's also kind of the reality. I can tell you from the history, [the next round] always came faster and earlier than I could imagine."

Has Sentra received strategic M&A interest?

"People always ask, and I speak with everyone because I believe this is part of the ecosystem. But if you ask me, we have such a unique technology and such a unique opportunity. Varonis [which is selling to Proofpoint], they pushed themselves to a very different path."

4. Sentra scopes deals

🖥️ Exclusive: Coding arms race (Madison Mills)

Meta bought Conductor as rivals race for developer dominance. 

🏦 Exclusive: Playing defense (Ryan Lawler)

Pliant secured $80m to help banks fend off fintechs.

🔐 Exclusive: Threat level rising (Chris Metinko)

Brava raises $15m, with another funding round looming.

🏭 Exclusive: Raw materials revealed (Katie Fehrenbacher)

Atmospheric AI raised $10m to expand supply chain modeling.

🕹️Exclusive: Remote control (Chris Metinko)

Phaze raised $8.75m to connect workers with remote compute.

🎯 Exclusive: GitHub gambit (Madison Mills)

OpenAI's latest acquisition puts Microsoft in the crosshairs. 

Boehringer signed a $7b cancer licensing deal with China's SBP.

Democratic gains will force AI investors to rethink valuations.

Voters pushed back against AI's massive data center buildout.

5. Driving the day

Animated illustration of a steering wheel that turns back and forth before turning into a clock that moves from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then changing back.

👉 GO HERE TO CATCH UP on deals since this morning's Pro Rata, including:

Nooks, an SF-based revenue agent platform, raised $500m from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund. Go deeper

Sapphiros, a diagnostics platform backed by KKR, combined with Binx Health, a point-of-care diagnostics provider backed by Hildred, to form Onvaro. Go deeper

AbbVie, a Chicago-based pharma giant, will pay $100m upfront and up to $1.37b to Nxera, a Tokyo-based biotech, to develop an IBD drug candidate. Go deeper

6. 🚨 Deals Deals Deals!

Data: Financial Modeling Prep; Chart: Lucinda Shen/Axios

Shares of defense contractors slid today after Democrats seized control of Congress, amid concerns about future U.S. military spending.

"Trump 'branded' programs ‌are dead," ⁠TD Cowen analyst Roman Schweizer wrote in a note, pointing to the Golden Dome.

November 04, 2026

1. CVS edits its health playbook