CEO & Chair of the Board, Cigna
Search every verified David Cordani interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. David Cordani, chairman and chief executive officer of the Cigna Group, announced in May 2026 that he would transition to executive chair on July 1, 2026, with Brian Evanko succeeding him as CEO. Cordani described the transitioned after nearly 17 years as CEO. During the first quarter of 2026, Cordani reported total revenues of $68.5 billion and raised the full-year adjusted EPS outlook to at least $30.35. He described the company’s decisions to exit the individual exchange market and explore strategic alternatives for Evacore as proactive portfolio-shaping moves driven by a lack of a clear path to scale and a desire to intensify focus on core growth platforms. Cordani has emphasized the company’s introduction of a new "rebate-free" pharmacy service model, which he said would deliver brand drugs to consumers at 30% lower cost with full transparency. He has also highlighted the company’s efforts to reduce prior authorization volume by 15% and its opposition to Arkansas legislation that he argued would restrict choice and increase costs. In an interview, Cordani stated that leadership is a privilege granted by those one leads, not a right conferred by title, and that senior leaders are in a perpetual learning environment in service of others.
“Despite these medications being relatively cheap to produce, Americans are paying prices that are multiples higher for GLP1s compared to other countries, even with full pass through of rebates. said otherwise. Even including all discounts and rebates, the end result is that the US costs are multiples higher than other...”
“Going forward, our standard products will provide patients lower prices at the pharmacy counter, protecting them from paying full list prices for drugs, and they will fully benefit from our lower net negotiated prices. Next, patients will also have improved predictability, especially and importantly in their deductible...”
“The settlement is a comprehensive resolution of all matters brought by the FTC regarding pharmacy benefits business. It includes the industry-wide insulin lawsuit and ongoing investigations. To be clear here, the beneficiary of the settlement are our customers and patients. The settlement noted $7 billion in out-of-poc...”
“At the Sigma Group, we are steadfast in our focus on leaning in to lower health care costs and expanding access to quality care and medications. But doing so requires confronting the underlying cost drivers, including both the demand and the supply side. Demand for healthcare in the United States is growing rapidly. Ou...”
“We are confident that our model is built, the new innovation is built through a customer first, no rebate, no spread, fully transparent fee-based model where we step into the advocacy role for the consumer at point of consumption of a pharmaceutical each and every time at the counter to dynamically shop and make sure t...”
“We expect full year 2026 consolidated adjusted income from operations of at least $30.25 per share. Our guidance assumes full-year weighted average shares outstanding to be in the range of 261 million to 265 million shares. And during 2026, we expect to continue progressing towards our long-term debt to capitalization...”
“We are proud of the significant value that has been delivered over a long period of time to the people we have the privilege of serving. Fully 80% of the Express Scripts customers have less than $250 out of pocket over the course of a full year. And as I noted, through the good work of the pharmacy benefit services ind...”
“We are raising our full-year EPS guidance estimate to at least $29.60. We are confident in our ability to sustainably deliver 10 to 14% compounded EPS growth over the strategic horizon along with providing an attractive dividend.”
“We oppose both the construct and the intent of the bill. Where the posture of the bill picks and chooses winners in the state, uses inappropriately from our point of view lure capabilities to limit choice commerce and free market and the result of which importantly is going to be a decrease in access, a reduction in ch...”
“Our capital deployment strategy remains consistent: priority one is to support the ongoing growth of the business, priority two is prudent deployment of capital for capex and innovation, and priority three is to return excess capital to shareholders and or pursue attractive M&A. We look for opportunities that are strat...”
“We exited the second quarter with momentum and are pleased to report the Cigna Group delivered another quarter of differentiated financial results. And recognizing the meaningful disruption in the industry, we're also pleased to reaffirm our guidance for full year 2025.”
“The legislation essentially arbitrarily constrains access. The legislation would, as it's configured, break continuity of care. The legislation would restrict choice. And the legislation would have an undoubtable positive impact or upward impact in a negative way on affordability.”
“We made the choice to prioritize margin over growth in the individual exchanges, which resulted in a reduction of our customer base from nearly 1 million customers in 2023 to fewer than 400,000 customers today.”
“We continue to expect the full year 2025 adjusted earnings per share outlook of at least $29.60. And with that, we'll turn it over to the operator for the Q&A portion of the call.”
“Drug pricing continues to create a significant affordability challenge as and has become an even more intense part of the public dialogue in 2025. One area where we've helped address affordability relates to generic drugs with Americans today enjoying the lowest prices in the world for these medications. In fact, gener...”
04/30/2026 Q&A: 28:26 The Cigna Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and related products and services in the United States. It operates through two segments: Evernorth Health Services and Cigna Healthcare. The Evernorth Health Services segment includes Pharmacy Benefit Services and Specialty and Care Services, offering pharmacy benefit management, drug claim adjudication, retail pharmacy network administration, benefit design consultation, drug utilization review, drug formulary management, pharmacy benefits, home delivery pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, specialty pharmaceu…
In this episode of Aggie Legends, Ben Wiggins ’07 ’18 welcomes David Cordani ’88, chairman and CEO of The Cigna Group, back to Aggieland. From his blue-collar roots in Connecticut to the Fortune 500 C-suite, Cordani’s journey embodies hard work, service, entrepreneurial grit, and unyielding integrity. Discover how his formative years and A&M experience shaped a philosophy that leadership is a sacred privilege, not a right. Cordani shares stories from the boardroom and the race course, reflects on leading through crisis, and champions the power of micro-communities, inclusion, and perpetual per…
How do we fix the American healthcare system? On this episode of Bold Names, we ask David Cordani, the chairman and CEO of ...This week on Bold Names we're talking to David Cordani he's the chairman and CEO of Sigma one of the US's biggest health ...
05/02/2025 Q&A: 25:25 The Cigna Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and related products and services in ...
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