WALGREENS

DENVER — Busy Breathers on Tuesday announced the availability of its portable oxygen backpacks on e-commerce sites Drugstore.com and Walgreens.com and in 75 Walgreens locations throughout Colorado.  

 DETROIT — The Detroit Lions and Walgreens on Friday entered into an agreement naming Walgreens as the Official Pharmacy of the Detroit Lions. Walgreens also will be named presenting sponsor of the team’s Living for the City Health & Wellness community initiative, bringing preventive healthcare resources and charitable programs to disadvantaged and at-risk families throughout metropolitan Detroit.

 DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens pharmacists are on the frontlines of a new transition of care program, WellTransitions, which brings hospitals and health systems together with Walgreens in a coordinated care model designed to reduce readmission rates and overall healthcare costs while improving patient health outcomes and medication adherence, Walgreens announced Tuesday. The WellTransitions program is being rolled out as thousands of hospitals nationwide face possible penalties from Medicare for patient readmission rates that are too high, under a new law that took effect Oct.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens will be offering free, personalized Part D plan comparison reports to help beneficiaries identify the plan that best meets their prescription drug needs, the retail pharmacy operator announced Monday. Plan reviews are available on a walk-in basis or by scheduling an appointment at Walgreens.com/medicare, Walgreens stated.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative certainly is a noble cause, but more than that, this is a prime example of Walgreens' active pursuit of an experience with its audience through the mediums that that audience chooses — in this case, Twitter. It represents a new paradigm in marketing as drug retailers and others swap a consumer reach and brand identity proposition for one of engagement and presence.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday afternoon hosted a live chat on Twitter regarding its newly launched national Retail Employees with Disabilities Initiative, an in-store training program designed to help people with disabilities gain retail employment, and how that program soon will expand.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, once was among the most feared childhood diseases and was a frequent killer of young children. Today, it's mostly under control, a testament to the importance of vaccinations.

(THE NEWS: Pertussis cases increase tenfold in Washington over May 2011. For the full story, click here )

CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell's has tapped Walgreens' social media director to lead the soup maker's digital marketing and social media efforts.