As much as many admired the decision by CVS to stop selling cigarettes, there were also plenty who wondered how the company would manage to make up the roughly $1.5 billion in annual tobacco sales lost as a result. It appears as though CVS has a plan and that the strategy goes beyond the company's drugstores.
According to reports, CVS Health's Caremark pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) division plans to charge up to an additional $15 in co-pays to consumers who purchase their prescription medicines at pharmacies that sell tobacco products.
A CVS Health spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that some of Caremark's PBM customers have asked the company about creating a network of pharmacies that do not sell tobacco. Moving customers from other pharmacies to CVS could prove a boon to the company's retail pharmacies, which already fill about one-third of the prescriptions covered by Caremark.
CVS Health's heavy-handed approach with Caremark stands in contrast to its "We Wish" ad campaign that makes an emotional connection between the company's mission and the welfare of its customers. The voice-over for a commercial, which has gotten over one million views in less than two months, says, "The wish we wish above all for ourselves and those we love is health... Introducing CVS Health, a new approach, a new purpose, a new promise to do everything we can to help all those wishes come true."
The American Pharmacists Association asked drugstores to stop selling tobacco in 2010. While a number of small independents had taken the step, CVS was the first major chain to end tobacco sales in its stores.
