Retail pharmacy giant CVS announced on Feb. 5 that it would stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its 7,600 stores by October 1 of this year. Although CVS Caremark reports the decision will cost the company $2 billion in annual revenue, it said the move supports the health and well-being of patients and consumers.
“Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health,” said Larry J. Merlo, president and CEO, CVS Caremark.
CVS said the decision does not affect the company’s 2014 segment operating profit guidance, 2014 EPS guidance or the company’s five-year financial projections.
“As the delivery of health care evolves with an emphasis on better health outcomes, reducing chronic disease and controlling costs, CVS Caremark is playing an expanded role in providing care through our pharmacists and nurse practitioners,” Merlo said.
Requests by The American to interview a local or regional representative were referred to CVS Caremark corporate.
The company will instead focus on helping its customers quit smoking instead, with a nationwide smoking cessation program to launch in the spring, expected to include information and treatment on smoking cessation at CVS/pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations and online. It will offer additional comprehensive programs for pharmacy benefit management plan members to help them to quit smoking.
The action prompted accolades from the White House. President Barack Obama congratulated and thanked CVS leadership for their choice, stating it will have a profoundly positive impact on the health of the nation.
“As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and will help advance my administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs,” Obama said.
CVS operates about two dozen pharmacies in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
St. Louis County Health Director Dr. Delores Gunn said she is pleased with CVS’s decision.
“It’s the right decision for all the right reasons,” Dr. Gunn told The American. “It’s good to know they are not going to sell a product that we know causes a lot of heart disease and respiratory disease in our community.”
“I appreciate they are putting the health of their patients first, and I think it will have an impact on the rate of smoking in St. Louis,” said Pamela Walker, interim director of the St. Luis Department of Health.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the unprecedented decision will help to make the next generation tobacco-free, and she hopes others will follow CVS’s lead to curtail tobacco use.
Smoking is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., killing 443,000 Americans and costing the nation $193 billion in healthcare expenses and lost productivity each year, according to a U.S. Surgeon General’s report released last month.
American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown called CVS’s decision “an important step forward in reducing access to these deadly products, and we applaud their courage to put public health above profits.”
Health organizations such as the AHA, American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and American Pharmacists Association have publicly opposed tobacco sales in retail outlets with pharmacies.
The timing of the announcement last week’s follows by weeks the 50th anniversary of the historic first Surgeon General’s Report, which concluded that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. Since that 1964 report, evidence has linked smoking to diseases of nearly all the body’s organs.
CVS is the second-largest retail pharmacy in the U.S. The nation’s No. 1 pharmacy chain, Walgreens, released the following statement last week:
“We have been evaluating this product category for some time to balance the choices our customers expect from us, with their ongoing health needs. We will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help to reduce the demand for tobacco products.
Over the past year, Walgreens stated it has partnered to conduct broad-based, in-store smoking cessation campaigns to provide consumers with educational health support, including a free, online quit-smoking program at www.sponsorshiptoquit.com.
