Walgreens Health Initiatives Releases Its 2009 Trend Report

DEERFIELD, Ill., May 19, 2009 - Pharmacy benefit manager Walgreens Health Initiative’s recently released trend report demonstrates its continued dedication to managing costs while ensuring members have access to the medications they need. The report, available online at WalgreensHealth.com/trendreport2009 contains a wealth of information, including the following highlights:

• How highly managed plans achieved a negative drug trend of -0.5 percent and an overall generic dispensing rate of 67.1 percent
• The strategies adopted by a 130,000-life client, including the addition of a worksite Take Care Clinic^SM, to reduce its trend to a negative -0.41 percent over a two-year period
• How a 100,000-life group could save $473,000 annually by adopting two new specialty prior authorizations
• Study results that showed clients who implemented step care therapy realized a cost savings of 69.6 percent for a certain therapeutic class that surpassed the savings of a control group which did not implement any changes.

Additionally, for the fourth quarter 2008, an industry-leading generic dispensing rate of 73.9 percent, more than 6.5 percentage points higher than figures reported by other PBMs, was achieved across all prescriptions processed by Walgreens Health Initiatives. Analysis by the company has shown that for every 1 percent increase in generic utilization, clients realize approximately 2 percent savings in total spend.

Walgreens Health Initiatives, Inc. is a pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 9.2 million covered lives nationwide. It is one of three PBMs to achieve certification every year since the inception of the certification program by HR Policy Association, a public policy organization of senior human resources executives of the largest employers in the United States. Walgreens Health Initiatives, with a national network of more than 62,000 pharmacies, is known for its commitment to client and member service and its focus on clinical programs that promote patient-first health care as well as cost-containment.

Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2008 sales of $59 billion. The company operates 6,783 drugstores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. In addition to Walgreens Health Initiatives, Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness division includes Take Care Health Systems (www.takecarehealthsystem.com), the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.

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