WALGREENS

ATLANTA — SoloHealth, a consumer-driven healthcare technology company, on Wednesday said Stanley Blaylock, former Walgreens SVP and former president of Walgreens Health Services, will join SoloHealth’s board of directors. The announcement comes as SoloHealth prepares for a nationwide rollout in 2012 of its next-generation, consumer health screening kiosk, the SoloHealth Station.

BOONTON, N.J. — Unigene Labs, a developer of peptide-based therapeutics, on Wednesday appointed Walgreens' Thomas Sabatino Jr. to its board of directors.

"[Sabatino's] extensive industry experience and impressive track record — specifically, his knowledge of the legal and regulatory landscape for pharmaceutical companies — will be invaluable as Unigene continues to execute against its business transformation," Unigene chairman Richard Levy said.

NEW YORK — Walgreens took to the road the week before Thanksgiving to talk turkey with analysts on why Walgreens is a good bet going into 2012, even if the pharmacy won't be participating in the Express Scripts pharmacy network this coming year.

BOISE, Idaho — Walgreens on Friday joined with three pharmacy benefit managers — Altius Health Plans, Coventry Health Care and HealthAmerica — for an awareness campaign to educate employers on the benefits of a pharmacy network that includes Walgreens.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Walgreens is running the ball straight down the middle of the field in its bid to mitigate any lost Express Scripts prescriptions once the retailer is removed from that benefit manager's pharmacy network at the end of the year — and that seems increasingly likely with each passing day. And if Walgreens achieves 97% to 99% of its 2011 prescription volume of 819 million prescriptons next year, as the pharmacy retailer maintains, then it will be the Chicago-based Walgreens doing an end-zone shuffle of sorts by the end of next year.

LOS ANGELES — Ethnic hair care brand Curls has announced that its hair care collection is now available at Walgreens, Rite Aid and Sally’s Beauty.

The Curls line contains all-natural ingredients and is free of sulfates, parabens, minerals or petroleum oils.

The products available include:

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Coventry Health Care of Georgia has launched an awareness campaign with Walgreens that underscores the benefits of including the drug store chain in employers' 2012 pharmacy networks.

The campaign — which includes print and radio advertisements and outreach to companies whose current health plans will not include Walgreens in their 2012 pharmacy networks — seeks to educate employers in the Augusta and Savannah areas about how they can ensure access to convenient pharmacy services for their employees, Coventry said.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — In an 8-K filing earlier this week, Walgreens broke down its Express Scripts business and challenged many assertions that have been made regarding contract negotiations with Express Scripts. The overarching theme of the filing suggested Express Scripts has little to gain without Walgreens within the pharmacy network fold but much to lose.