CVS/pharmacy Statement Regarding Generic Drug Pricing

WOONSOCKET, R.I., Sept. 21  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In response to numerous inquiries regarding a competitor's announcement of its pricing policy on approximately 300 selected generic drugs in the Tampa, Florida market, Matt Leonard, RPh, Senior Vice President of Pharmacy at CVS/pharmacy, made the following comments:

"These 300 drugs are all older generics that already have lower reimbursement rates from health plans.  They represent less than 10% of the more than 3,000 unique generic products that we stock.  Cash sales of these products amount to less than one-half of one percent of our total pharmacy sales.

"For customers who have prescription coverage, the average generic co-pay is relatively nominal.  For example, the generic co-pay for Medicare prescription drug plans is typically $5.  Furthermore, under many health plans, the price paid by the consumer for some of these drugs is actually less than $4.  In addition, beneficiaries who reach the so-called 'donut hole' in Medicare Part D coverage pay the plan price, which can be less than $4 for a significant number of these drugs.

"CVS/pharmacy has always provided its customers with very competitive pricing, better access, more convenient neighborhood locations and more 24-hour and extended-hour stores, a combination that other competitors can't match."

About CVS Corporation

CVS is America's largest retail pharmacy, operating approximately 6,200 retail and specialty pharmacy stores in 43 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 innovatively serves the healthcare needs of all customers through its CVS/pharmacy stores; its online pharmacy, CVS.com; its retail-based health clinic subsidiary, MinuteClinic; and its pharmacy benefit management, mail order 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 .

  Investor Contact:         Media Contact:
  Nancy Christal            Carolyn Castel
  Investor Relations        Corporate Communications
  [phone]            [phone]


DATASOURCE: CVS Corporation



CONTACT:  Investor Contact, Nancy Christal, Investor Relations,

[phone], or Media Contact, Carolyn Castel, Corporate Communications,

[phone], both for CVS Corporation



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

http://www.cvs.com/pressroom

http://investor.cvs.com/ 

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