CVS

NEW YORK — Wall Street calls for the breakup of CVS Caremark? Nope, not so fast.

About a year after analysts called for the split of CVS Caremark's PBM business, they now are changing their tune on the heels of the company's 2011 Analyst Day presentation on Dec. 20.

In fact, shares of CVS Caremark ended 2011 up 17% and, as Dow Jones Newswires reported, is trading at a roughly 3-and-a-half-year high.

ATLANTA — Hair accessory brand Goody has announced the launch of its DoubleWear collection of jewelry-inspired elastics and headwraps.

A recent Goody poll reported that most women wear an elastic on their wrist as a convenient way to keep it handy, but 68% of respondents said they were frustrated with how this look compromised their style. Enter DoubleWear.

MINNEAPOLIS — Despite an overall decrease in free standing insert coupon activity, retailer promotion pages within the FSI vehicles recorded a 30.7% increase to more than 17 billion pages in 2011, continuing the significant annual increases in retailer promotion activity, which began in 2007, Kantar Media reported Wednesday.

Overall, the number of free-standing insert coupons distributed through 2011 dropped 6.5% compared with 2010. This decline in FSI coupon activity followed two consecutive years of annual increases of 8% in 2009 and 7.2% in 2010.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy has launched a new service on its CVS.com website to assist military service members, veterans and their families who need to transfer their prescriptions to a pharmacy that lets them continue using their Tricare prescription insurance coverage.

Whether it’s creating beachy waves, sexy curls or modern ponytails, women aren’t shying away from styling their best fashion accessory: hair. 


Sales of styling products are on the upswing, according to the data provided by SymphonyIRI. The market research firm reported that for the 52 weeks ended Nov. 27 at food, drug and mass (excluding Walmart), sales of hair spray/spritz rose just shy of 1% to about $418.8 million, while sales of hair-styling gel/mousse rose 1.8% to about $642.7 million.


This is going to be a big year for retail clinics because this is going to be the year that payers really begin to engage with retail-based care on a meaningful level. 


Rather than take off for Christmas, the editors of Drug Store News took a look at the year ahead and the stories, issues and trends that will make headlines in retail pharmacy in 2012.

WOONSOCKET, R.I., and WORCESTER, Mass. — CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic and UMass Memorial Health Care, the largest healthcare system in central and western Massachusetts and the clinical partner of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, have entered into a clinical collaboration to enhance access to healthcare services in central Massachusetts.