CVS Takes a Stand on Pseudoephedrine Products

CVS Takes a Stand on Pseudoephedrine Products
Company Moves All Single Ingredient Items Behind the Pharmacy Counter 


WOONSOCKET, R.I., April 27  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CVS/pharmacy (NYSE: CVS),
America's largest retail pharmacy, has made the decision to move all over the
counter single ingredient pseudoephedrine products behind the pharmacy counter
as of July 1, 2005.

Pseudoephedrine is the key precursor ingredient that can be converted into the
illegal drug methamphetamine.  After careful review of numerous state
legislative proposals and law enforcement bulletins, CVS made the decision to
move these products behind the counter in all of its 5,400 stores across 36
states over the next sixty days.

"As a leader in our industry, we feel strongly that the private sector must
step up to help to reduce offenders' access to high content forms of
pseudoephedrine.  We have chosen to target all the single ingredient products
that both state and federal task forces have identified as the most frequently
used products in the production of methamphetamine," commented Chris Bodine,
Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at CVS.  "As the
largest pharmacy retailer in the country, we must balance the needs of our
millions of customers who use these safe and highly effective cold and allergy
products legitimately with individual state legislative and law enforcement
efforts to stem the production of this illegal drug across the country."

"We will continue to monitor this situation and communicate with federal, state
and local officials to respond to changes in state law or new law enforcement
initiatives.  Our policy will also adapt to merchandise mix changes, especially
given manufacturers' current plans to reformulate their existing cold and
allergy products."

About CVS

CVS is America's largest retail pharmacy, operating more than 5,400 retail and
specialty pharmacy stores in 36 states and the District of Columbia.  With more
than 40 years of dynamic growth in the retail pharmacy industry, CVS is
committed to being the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use.  CVS has
created innovative approaches to serve the healthcare needs of all customers
through its CVS/pharmacy stores; its online pharmacy, CVS.com; and its pharmacy
benefit management and specialty pharmacy subsidiary, PharmaCare. General
information about CVS is available through the Investor Relations portion of
the Company's website, at http://investor.cvs.com/, as well as through the
pressroom portion of the Company's website, at http://www.cvs.com/pressroom.

  CONTACT:   Eileen Howard Dunn
             VP, Corporate Communications
             CVS/pharmacy
             401-770-4561

             Michael DeAngelis
             Manager, Corporate Communications
             CVS/pharmacy
             401-770-2645


DATASOURCE: CVS/pharmacy



CONTACT:  Eileen Howard Dunn, VP, Corporate Communications, +1-401-770-

4561, or Michael DeAngelis, Manager, Corporate Communications, [phone]

both of CVS/pharmacy



Web site:  http://www.cvs.com/

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