DEERFIELD, Ill. — Chong Bang, Walgreen Co.’s general merchandise manager for photo and front-end services and the latest executive to oversee implementation of the company’s Customer-Centric Retailing (CCR) initiative, plans to leave the company later this month. He is joining Canadian chain Shoppers Drug Mart as senior vice president of merchandising. Bang, whose last day
WASHINGTON — Senators have dug in for a prolonged floor fight on health care reform, even after voting on their first two amendments. While lawmakers approved co-payment–free mammograms and other preventive services for women and rejected a Republican move to eliminate Medicare spending cuts, senators still faced weeks of debate, putting hopes for the passage
WASHINGTON — Pharmacy operators and drug wholesalers say they fear that a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy could prevent certain medications for chronic conditions from being covered by Medicare Part D. To minimize disruption on senior citizens and pharmacies, five pharmacy associations — including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores,
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. continues to shuffle its upper management ranks, bringing in new executives and moving others to new roles. Most recently, divisional vice president of health law Laura Merten was named divisional vice president of compliance, loss prevention and profit sharing, replacing Chester Young, who will retire in January after 41 years
NEW YORK — Chain drug retailers posted strong sales gains in November. Overall sales for the trade class advanced 8.3% from results in the prior-year period, while same-store sales increased by 4%. Walgreen Co. was among the drug chains recording solid results for the month. It reported November sales of nearly $5.4 billion, up 8.7%.
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Online retailer drugstore.com inc. reported a strong start to its holiday selling season. On Cyber Monday, traditionally the kickoff of the online holiday shopping season, the company reported its highest number of orders ever. “While one day does not make the season, we are delighted that customers responded in record numbers to
NEW YORK — The level of flu activity across the nation dropped in November, federal health officials said earlier this month, indicating that the second wave of the swine flu pandemic in the United States has peaked. While officials warned that the number of people getting infected with the H1N1 virus remains high and cases
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Three longtime members of Walgreen Co.’s board of directors will step down next month, including Charles R. (Cork) Walgreen III, the grandson of the company’s founder. Plans call for Walgreen, Cordell Reed and Marilou von Ferstel to retire at the drug store chain’s annual shareholders meeting on January 13. Walgreen served on
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has submitted a letter to the Food and Drug Administration expressing its concern that rogue Internet pharmacies are engaging in a pattern of illegal activity. “These illegal, rogue Internet sites take advantage of consumers by luring them into illegal schemes to obtain prescription drugs, often
DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. has relaunched its web site, adding a variety of healthy living and product resources, expanding the shopping tools and services it offers, and making the site easier to navigate. The new web site introduces innovative features that make it easier to manage prescriptions online, photo service enhancements, new mobile applications
For four days at the beginning of December, NACDS brought the chain drug industry briefly to life, by the simple expedient of gathering the retailer and supplier communities together in New York City for a series of business and social events. It was the first time serious elements of chain drug retailing had come together
Retail pharmacy operators and other health care providers recently were given a preview of the difficulties involved in implementing the findings of comparative effectiveness research, a science-based approach to evaluating the benefits and potential dangers of alternative forms of diagnosis and treatment. Controversy erupted when the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Kerr Drug this month took another step to advance pharmacy. The chain opened a store here with a room for pharmacogenomics, the study of how a patient’s genes affect medication efficacy. The room is one of five in the store’s Community Healthcare Center for clinical pharmacy, another Kerr innovation. The other
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) introduced a health care reform bill in that chamber earlier this month, setting the stage for a debate there and the eventual merging of the Senate measure with the bill passed in the House on November 7. At presstime, however, Senate leaders were unsure whether they