WALGREENS

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday expanded its offering of immunizations that provide protection against pertussis (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis-Tdap vaccine) to all of its more than 580 pharmacies throughout Illinois with no appointment necessary.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens and Access Community Health Network of Chicago on Tuesday teamed up in an effort to protect more people in Chicago’s medically underserved communities from the flu this season, through a new program in which Walgreens will provide more than 10,000 free flu shot vouchers for eligible Access patients.

FLINT, Mich. — Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy has hired Craig Stephens as group VP business development and trade relations, the company said Wednesday.

NEW YORK — Ken Finnegan, Walgreens divisional VP healthcare new business development, will assume leadership of the corporate innovation team, Drug Store News has learned.

Finnegan succeeds Colin Watts, corporate VP and chief innovation officer, who is departing Walgreens for Weight Watchers in January. In that capacity, Finnegan will pick up on Watts' efforts to transform the retail pharmacy retail format into more of a destination center for all issues regarding health and wellness.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The longer this proposed Express Scripts-Medco deal remains under the microscope, the more people don't seem to like what they see. The general tone at this Senate hearing was against the merger. Many of the senators in attendance were expressing concern that the proposed merger would negatively impact access to pharmacy, which is perhaps the greatest import of the possibility of an Express Scripts-Medco super-PBM.

WASHINGTON — More than 250,000 U.S. military personnel, family members, retirees and others in the Department of Defense Tricare pharmacy benefits program, and their supporters, so far have signed petitions demanding access to Walgreens pharmacies under the Tricare pharmacy program, Walgreens reported Thursday.

The pace of petition signatures from Tricare members seeking to retain access to Walgreens and their supporters has reached more than 10,000 per week in recent weeks, the pharmacy operator added.

NEW YORK — Supermarket chain Schnucks is hoping to benefit from the spat between Walgreens and pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, according to published reports.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Monday reported November sales of $6.1 billion, an increase of 4.2%, compared with the same month in fiscal year 2011. Sales in comparable stores increased 1.8%.

Total front-end sales increased 4%, with comparable store front-end sales up 2.7%. Customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 30 basis points and basket size was up 3%.