WALGREENS

PROVO, Utah — Pharmacy technician students at an online school will be able to perform externships with a major retail pharmacy chain, under a partnership the two companies announced.

Career Step said it would partner with Walgreens to allow students to work at local Walgreens stores after gaining a solid foundation of pharmacy technician knowledge in the program. Externship will typically consist of 180 practical hours.

NEW YORK — Walgreens on Thursday took its failed negotiations with Express Scripts to Twitter, paying the social media site to promote the hashtag #ILoveWalgreens and setting off a barrage of tweets by tweeting "It's time to take a stand against @ExpressScripts. Tell them people want a choice by tweeting hashtag #ILoveWalgreens."

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Thursday declared a regular quarterly dividend of 22.5 cents per share, a 28.6% increase over the year-ago dividend. The dividend is payable March 12, 2012, to shareholders of record Feb. 17, 2012.

Walgreens has paid a dividend in 317 straight quarters (more than 79 years) and has raised its dividend for 36 consecutive years. Over the last five years, Walgreens' annual dividend rate has increased from 31 cents per share to 90 cents per share, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 23.8%.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Winn-Dixie on Tuesday joined the Diabetes Prevention and Control Alliance, an initiative aimed at tipping the scales against the epidemic of diabetes, prediabetes and obesity by expanding access to community-based programs that use evidence-based approaches to help prevent and control diabetes.

CHICAGO — Walgreens on Tuesday brought the latest example of its flagship retail pharmacy to life here in Chicago, tantalizing its hometown crowd with departments most shoppers normally wouldn't associate with a pharmacy: a fully stocked sushi bar, quick-and-fresh deli offerings and a self-serve yogurt bar adjacent to a juice bar that, along with the healthy-for-you selection of juice, offers the “double-rich chocolate malted milk” that the retailer invented in 1922.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — After announcing a special discount for Express Scripts members on the annual membership fee for the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club, the drug store chain said its PSC gained nearly 125,000 customers in the first week of the new year.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — It's been a big week for Walgreens. Following its exit from Express Scripts' pharmacy network, the pharmacy retailer introduced a new program to help patients either keep their pharmacy home at Walgreens or to help transition them to a new pharmacy. Why help transition customers to the competition? Because it's the right thing to do. As Greg Wasson told DSN editor Rob Eder in an exclusive interview, "our No. 1 priority is to take care of patients."

WASHINGTON — RetireSafe, a 400,000-supporter strong grassroots organization that advocates and educates on behalf of America's seniors on issues regarding Social Security, Medicare, health and financial well-being, on Friday issued a press release urging Express Scripts to return to the negotiating table and come to an agreement with Walgreens.