WALGREENS

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The news that Walgreens outlined how face-to-face pharmacy and Take Care Clinic programs have been shown to drive better health outcomes further illustrates the fact that human interaction simply does things that mail order cannot.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Immunization records will be sent directly from Walgreens and Duane Reade stores to primary care providers over Surescripts' electronic prescribing network, Walgreens said Monday.

ELMSFORD, N.Y. — Specialty pharmacy provider BioScrip had sales of $483.3 million in fourth quarter 2011 and $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2011, the company said Friday.

The company's fourth-quarter sales marked an increase of $32.9 million, while the sales for the year were $200 million over fiscal year 2010. Meanwhile, the company had profits of $6.7 million for the quarter and $7.9 million for the year.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens is bringing its pharmacy to the palms of customers' hands by introducing new mobile features that aim to improve the management of prescription needs and medication adherence.

The latest mobile features include:

In a recent campaign, Walgreens used LocalResponse’s Direct Response to reach customers in-store to disseminate store promotions, such as flu shots and coupons for Kraft Foods’ Halls cough drops. Average click-through rates for Direct Response are greater than 50%, according to LocalResponse. Specifically, those consumers who “checked in” at their local Walgreens, be it through third-party apps like FourSquare, Google Places or Yelp, were targeted with a Halls-branded message.

The number of patients with diabetes is not decreasing any time soon, and one of the most important fronts in the battle lies at the pharmacy counter.


CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. –– Take Care Health Systems, which is owned by Walgreens, has announced that it now is offering sports and camp physicals for $39. The physicals, regularly $60, are available until October and administered by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
 

MINNEAPOLIS — Kantar Media on Wednesday reported that overall retailer advertising expenditures increased 1.6% and retailer participation in Free Standing Insert coupon promotion pages increased 30.7% over calendar year 2011, versus the corresponding year-ago period. Additionally, digital coupon events increased 40.4% during this period across the leading retailer websites monitored by Kantar Media.