The world's biggest retailer made the surprise announcement on Monday to offer its deals to 11 more states, citing the popularity of the program launched in September in Tampa, Fla., and now expanded to 49 states.
Missoula's two Wal-Mart pharmacies and 10 others statewide will join with stores in every state except North Dakota to offer the cut-rate price for up to a month's supply of 331 generic drugs.
Fifty of the drugs on the list will sell for $9 in Montana and a handful of other states, because of state laws, according to David Tovar, national spokesman for Wal-Mart. (Missoula pharmacists at Wal-Mart were directed to forward all media questions to its national office.)
Among the more popular $4 drugs on Wal-Mart's list are amoxicillin, an antibiotic, and the cardiac drugs lisinopril (brand name Prinovil) and atenolol (Tenormin).
The two most prescribed drugs - hydrocodone/acetaminophen and Lipitor - aren't on the list. They ranked first and second among the 300 most dispensed prescriptions in the U.S. in 2005, according to rxlist.com.
Eleven states with 811 pharmacies at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club will be added to the $4 program on Tuesday. The program isn't available in North Dakota because the company doesn't operate its own pharmacies in the state. Instead, it leases space to pharmacies.
Tovar said response was immediate when the $4 program began earlier this year. It was expanded to pharmacies throughout Florida in early October and to 14 other states in mid-October. A dozen states were added in late October, and 11 more in mid-November.
“Between Sept. 21, when we first launched the program, and Nov. 12, we had 2.1 million new prescriptions,” Tovar said. “Originally, what we had talked of doing was to roll it out in Tampa and (start) taking it nationally at the beginning of January.”
Wal-Mart first announced plans to spread to as many states as possible by the end of 2007.
“We had such a great response from our customers, our pharmacists and elected officials all over the country saying we'd love you to do this in our state, we decided to speed up the roll-out by a few months,” Tovar said.
Bill Simon, executive vice president of Wal-Mart's Professional Services Division, said in a written statement that the company has received “hundreds of letters and e-mails from customers over the last few months telling us how this program has changed their lives.”
But others were skeptical about the program, or think Wal-Mart is overhyping its impact.
“It's going to be a good thing for some customers who'll take advantage of this price break on a very narrow band of all the generic drugs,” said Jim Smith, executive director of the Montana Pharmaceutical Association.
Smith said there are some 11,500 generic drugs available. Wal-Mart's $4 offer is for less than 3 percent of them, and not even that in Montana.
The pricing affects only generic drugs, which contain the same active ingredients as their brand-name counterparts and are just as effective but cost less - generally 30 to 60 percent less, according to Wal-Mart.
The company's strategy of forcing down prices to dominate local markets has been roundly criticized in Montana and elsewhere.
Wal-Mart is “pretty well known for its pricing tactics,” Smith said Monday. “These are the same tactics they apply to kids' clothing and anything else.”
To get the low prices on generic drugs, Wal-Mart customers can order their prescriptions by phone but must pick them up in person.
Other large chains have started or are preparing cut-rate prescription programs, including Costco and Target.
Target, the No. 2 discounter in the United States behind Wal-Mart, said last week it would expand its own $4 generic prescription drug program to all of its pharmacies. The only Target in Montana with a pharmacy is in Billings.
Smith said he is most concerned about the independent owners in Montana.
“A lot of medium-sized rural towns in Montana still have these independent pharmacies, and they've withstood the Wal-Marts and the Costcos,” Smith said.
They've also survived, “with a lot of hardship,” mail-order drugs, Internet pharmacies and “people being encouraged to run to Canada by politicians” to get their prescription drugs, Smith added.
While the number of traditional chain drugstores, supermarket pharmacies and mass merchant pharmacies in Montana remained stable from 2003-2005, independent drug stores dropped 17 percent - from 118 to 98, according to the Montana Pharmacy Association.
One of those survivors is A&C Drug, which has operated in Missoula since the 1930s.
“My first reaction is that the things on the list are the fairly cheap ones to purchase,” said manager Eric Shields. “Basically what they're doing is waiving the dispensing fee and giving the medications at cost.”
A&C has been at its current location on North Higgins since 1967.
“I don't think things are going to change too much for us,” Shields said. “It's really not too much about money. It's about location. We are right downtown and we service a lot of assisted living homes and things like that, and we have special packaging.”
On its Web site, the National Community Pharmacists Association labeled the $4 generic prescription program “bait-and-switch deception.”
“Wal-Mart's public relations ploy is furthering the commodization and diminution of the value of complex chemicals and pharmacist services that enhance the lives of millions of patients every day,” the association said.
In a media release, Wal-Mart estimated customers in the first 38 states to participate in the program will save $1.3 million each month on the diabetes medication metformin (brand name Glucophage), and $750,000 a month on warfarin (Coumadin).
Tovar said it was hard to say what the savings in Montana will be.
“We don't break our sales figures out by state like that,” he said.
Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart, said in a written statement the program is “bringing more affordable medicines to our nation's seniors, working families and the uninsured.”
“We are proud to have introduced competition to an area where it has been too scarce for too long,” Scott said. “We hope others will continue to join us in making prescription medicines more affordable and accessible for all Americans.”
Online:
You can find Wal-Mart's list of $4 generic prescription drugs online at http://missoulian.com/walmart/prescriptions.html
Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com
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