WALGREENS

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Christie Clinic last week announced it had entered into a purchase agreement with Walgreens for the sale of two of the former's pharmacy operations.

Walgreens will lease the space currently occupied by Christie Clinic for its new operations. The transfer is expected to be completed by the end of March. Walgreens plans to keep both pharmacy locations open and is renovating the facilities, including new signage.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Coupons.com on Thursday announced the appointment of Dawn Lepore, former chairman and CEO of Drugstore.com, to its board of directors.

“Dawn is a widely admired business leader and e-commerce trail blazer,” Coupons.com founder and CEO Steven Boal said. “Her leadership, expertise in building successful online businesses and experience as a board member of such companies as eBay, Walmart and The New York Times Co. will be a great asset to us as we continue to rapidly grow our business.”

LEESBURG, Va. — RxAlly on Wednesday announced the launch of the first-of-its-kind alliance of more than 20,000 pharmacies nationwide, united to help patients achieve better health through personalized pharmacist care while reducing costs.

DAYTON, Ohio — While Walmart maintained the No. 1 position on Interbrand's "U.S. Most Valuable Retail Brands" list for 2012, several other retailers are moving up the ranks.

Although Walmart touts a value that's more than $139 billion, this year also marked a 2% decrease for the big box retailer, Interbrand said. Second on this year's list was Target, which holds a value of $23 billion, a 1% increase over last year.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday partnered with Passport Health Plan, a local Medicaid health plan in Louisville, Ky.,  on a new smoking-cessation program that launched in early January. The program is free to Walgreens customers and Passport members and aims to improve the community’s health by giving smokers the tools, resources and ongoing clinical pharmacist counseling to help them achieve their cessation goals.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Retailers have always been about enhancing the shopping experience, but there are two factors this year that really should underscore the importance in that customer focus. Differentiating a retail shopping trip by experience is a lot friendlier to the margins because a shopper willing to trade on shopping experience also is willing to spend a little more.

“I have 20 years in the retail sector, and I know that not every pharmacist can be a specialist in a retail environment. So we give the pharmacists a higher level of confidence by using technology to target specific [national drug codes]. If a limited-
distribution product or a specialty script that they either don’t stock or they have never seen before comes across the counter, the computer directs them to Hy-Vee Pharmacy Solutions.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The call to Congress to reject budget proposals that would increase co-pays for prescription medications at community pharmacies for Tricare patients is important as the war between the pharmacy and pharmacy benefit manager lobbies heats up.