Cvs Caremark Corp

Amid the economic downturn and slow growth for retail and outpatient medical care services, pharmacy giants Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp. are rolling out new specialized services at their in-store clinics, going beyond treatment of routine maladies.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. has withdrawn its $2.8-billion bid to acquire Longs Drug Stores, apparently helping to ease the path for Longs' $2.7-billion acquisition by CVS Caremark Corp. Longs had already accepted CVS Caremark's lower bid of $71.50 a share, a deal approved by antitrust regulators. Walgreen Chief Executive Jeffrey Rein sent a letter to Longs' board of directors informing it of Walgreen's decision to withdraw its bid.

One of the nation's largest drugstore chains ratcheted up a price war Thursday, offering deep discounts on generic prescriptions amid national concern about the spiraling cost of healthcare. Drugstore giant CVS Caremark Corp. announced it would sell 90-day supplies of more than 400 medications for $9.99 and offer discounts for cash-paying patients at its in-store medical clinics. The price war was unleashed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the country's largest retailer, a few years ago.

Pharmacy chain CVS Caremark Corp. will repay about $2.8 million to consumers who bought a dietary supplement that was falsely marketed as a product that could prevent illness, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday. CVS touted its AirShield tablets and powders as a way to fight off the flu and boost the immune system, but there is no evidence that the products could do either, the commission said. As part of the $2.78-million settlement, CVS agreed to no longer make those claims, and it has changed the products' packaging.

CVS Caremark Corp. agreed to pay almost $37 million to nearly two dozen states and the federal government to settle claims that the nation's largest pharmacy chain billed Medicaid programs for a more expensive form of an antacid, authorities said. The settlement came after an investigation that began in 2001, when a suburban Chicago pharmacist told authorities. Attorneys said the chain gave Medicaid patients capsules of Ranitidine, a generic version of the heartburn medication Zantac, instead of even less expensive tablets.