CVS/pharmacy Statement Regarding Generic Drug Pricing
22 September 2006 - 11:15AM
PR Newswire (US)
WOONSOCKET, R.I., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In response to
numerous inquiries regarding a competitor's announcement of its
pricing policy on approximately 300 selected generic drugs in the
Tampa, Florida market, Matt Leonard, RPh, Senior Vice President of
Pharmacy at CVS/pharmacy, made the following comments: "These 300
drugs are all older generics that already have lower reimbursement
rates from health plans. They represent less than 10% of the more
than 3,000 unique generic products that we stock. Cash sales of
these products amount to less than one-half of one percent of our
total pharmacy sales. "For customers who have prescription
coverage, the average generic co-pay is relatively nominal. For
example, the generic co-pay for Medicare prescription drug plans is
typically $5. Furthermore, under many health plans, the price paid
by the consumer for some of these drugs is actually less than $4.
In addition, beneficiaries who reach the so-called 'donut hole' in
Medicare Part D coverage pay the plan price, which can be less than
$4 for a significant number of these drugs. "CVS/pharmacy has
always provided its customers with very competitive pricing, better
access, more convenient neighborhood locations and more 24-hour and
extended-hour stores, a combination that other competitors can't
match." About CVS Corporation CVS is America's largest retail
pharmacy, operating approximately 6,200 retail and specialty
pharmacy stores in 43 states and the District of Columbia. With
more than 40 years of dynamic growth in the retail pharmacy
industry, CVS is committed to being the easiest pharmacy retailer
for customers to use. CVS innovatively serves the healthcare needs
of all customers through its CVS/pharmacy stores; its online
pharmacy, CVS.com; its retail-based health clinic subsidiary,
MinuteClinic; and its pharmacy benefit management, mail order and
specialty pharmacy subsidiary, PharmaCare. General information
about CVS is available through the Investor Relations portion of
the Company's website, at http://investor.cvs.com/ , as well as
through the pressroom portion of the Company's website, at
http://www.cvs.com/pressroom . Investor Contact: Media Contact:
Nancy Christal Carolyn Castel Investor Relations Corporate
Communications (914) 722-4704 (401) 770-5717 DATASOURCE: CVS
Corporation CONTACT: Investor Contact, Nancy Christal, Investor
Relations, +1-914-722-4704, or Media Contact, Carolyn Castel,
Corporate Communications, +1-401-770-5717, both for CVS Corporation
Web site: http://www.cvs.com/ http://www.cvs.com/pressroom
http://investor.cvs.com/
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