WALGREENS

Rite Aid today unveiled the "new Rite Aid," a small but nimble, bicoastal regional chain that executives told the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday will have the same buying power over the next 10 years of its one-time suitor Walgreens Boots Alliance.

This year's flu continues to be Texas big, according to the Walgreens Flu Index released Wednesday, as the top 10 communities experiencing the greatest amount of flu incidence were all located in the Lone Star State for the week ended Jan. 6.

Iowa, Idaho and Arkansas rank behind Texas in terms of flu activity. And Montana, Idaho and Iowa ranked highest among states experiencing flu activity gains.

Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens will be introducing the first implementations of its new store format later this spring, or in early summer, executives said Monday night at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The new format will mark the first major overhaul of the core Walgreens format since the finalization of its merger with Alliance Boots in December 2014.

There’s no single magic bullet for enabling patient-facing care in community-based pharmacy, but there are proven strategies to make substantial progress.

There is no shortage of hurdles when it comes to achieving patient-facing care. Here are some key challenges and how the industry is trying to address them.

Long wait times: The biggest reason for dissatisfaction with a pharmacy is long wait times, said Oscar Cateriano, director of dispensing U.S. Retail, at BD.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is setting the pace on sustainability issues from health care and combatting climate change to promoting diversity and fostering inclusion as evidenced in its new 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Report published Friday.

As good as Walgreens performed behind the back bench this past quarter, the company’s continued focus on enhancing its beauty offerings is expected to lead improvements across the front-end as Walgreens plans to amalgamate the many store format pilots it has been testing into one of many yet-to-be-identified stores.

Walgreens kicks off its new fiscal with a mixed set of results. Overall sales are strong, aided by the integration of 375 Rite Aid stores and a robust performance from the U.S. retail pharmacy division. This growth was sufficient to make up for the slightly disappointing numbers from the international group, where same-store sales fell by 0.7%. Meanwhile, impairments in investments and an equity loss from earnings in AmerisourceBergen helped pushed down net income by 23%.