CVS Caremark and Walgreens both opened their 7,000th drug store earlier this fall, within a week of each other. CVS’ milestone store opened in a suburb of St. Paul, while Walgreens’ landmark unveiling took place in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y.
The commoditization of community pharmacy has come in for a good deal of criticism in recent years.
Earlier this month, Mike Bloom, CVS’ chief merchant, got a promotion.
Everywhere community pharmacy operators turn these days there seems to be a new challenge. Over the weekend, chain drug stores and other prescription drug providers began to feel the fallout from the reduction in average wholesale prices mandated by the settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
Chain drug retailing is changing more quickly and more dramatically than at any time in recent memory.
Retail pharmacy operators garnered a significant victory late last month when the state of Delaware agreed to rescind some of the cuts it had intended to make in reimbursements for prescriptions filled under the Medicaid program.
When Len DeMino retired earlier this month after over 50 years of service to the profession of community pharmacy, he closed the door on the golden era of chain drug retailing, an era he helped define. When DeMino began his career in 1958 as a pharmacist for Washington, D.C.
In a letter, Chain Drug Review‘s editor urges National Association of Chain Drug Stores chief executive Steve Anderson to tackle core issues for the association head on. Steve Anderson President and CEO NACDS 413 N. Lee St. Alexandria, Va.
Despite President Obama’s wish to have both chambers of Congress pass health care reform bills before the start of the August recess, it appeared almost certain that legislators would return home without acting.
