During the last financial quarter, Minnetonka-based insurance giant UnitedHealth Group Inc. quietly made a deal for Avella Specialty Pharmacy. The purchase of the Phoenix-based private pharmacy company was identified in the UnitedHealth Group third quarter earnings report, released Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Avella had a 2017 revenue of $1.35 billion, and has been a staple on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies nationwide for more than a decade. Its most recent posting on the list cited a three-year revenue growth of 71 percent.

Avella’s operations will be absorbed by UnitedHealth Group’s pharmacy segment, OptumRx.

“The combination of OptumRx and Avella will improve specialty-pharmacy care services and health outcomes for consumers, while helping reduce overall health-care costs,” Optum spokesman Matt Stearns told Bloomberg.

This acquisition comes less than a month after UnitedHealth Group bought Washington-based Genoa Healthcare, beating out Walgreens Boots Alliance and other suitors in securing that deal, rumored to be valued at $2.5 billion.

Both deals are part of UnitedHealth Group’s ongoing effort to expand its pharmacy business. In its third quarter, the insurance company posted revenues of $56.6 billion, a 12 percent increase year-over-year.