Wal-Mart officials have announced phase three of the company's $4 Prescription Program, which now covers a 90-day prescriptions for $10, additional women's health medications and a new $4 over-the-counter offer.
Wal-Mart officials say the program is expected to save its consumers millions annually.
The 90-day option is designed to give more choices to customers and physicians who may have been limited to mail-order prescriptions in the past, officials say.
"More and more people find healthcare, and particularly prescribed medicines, difficult to afford. This is one of the reasons we continually work to take our $4 Prescription Program to the next level," said John Agwunobi, Wal-Mart's senior vice president and president of health and wellness. "We're succeeding in our efforts to deliver simple, affordable, quality pharmacy solutions for families struggling with the rising costs of healthcare. And, our customers - and their budgets - are seeing a dramatic difference."
Phase three of the $4 Prescription Program includes:
- Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sam's Club pharmacies will fill prescriptions for up to 350 generic medications at $10 for a 90-day supply.
- Expanding on the women's medicines added to Wal-Mart's prescription program in September 2007, Alendronate, the recently introduced generic version of Fosamax (used to treat osteoporosis), is now available at Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sam's Club pharmacies for $9 for up to a 30-day supply or $24 for a 90-day supply. Compared to the $54 that women previously paid for the same generic supply or $102 for the same branded supply, Wal-Mart could save osteoporosis patients between $45 and $93 per month or up to $1,116 per year. In addition, medications to treat breast cancer (tamoxifen), menopause and hormone deficiency were also added to the growing list of $9 women's medications. Combined, Wal-Mart estimates that this expansion will save women more than $100 million annually.
- Wal-Mart Stores and Neighborhood Markets will offer a new $4 over-the-counter or OTC program, offering customers more than 1,000 OTC items priced at $4 or less without a prescription. Wal-Mart has rolled back prices on key OTC items to ensure that almost one-third of its OTC medicines are now $4 or lower. Now, many commonly used OTC medicines such as the Equate-brand versions of popular drugs like Zantac, Pepcid and Claritin are priced at $4, approximately 50 percent lower than many national chain drugstores and grocers based on Wal-Mart's internal research.
"Access to affordable prescription medicines is vitally important to the health and well-being of Texans," said Texas Governor Rick Perry in a press release. "I applaud Wal-Mart's efforts to make this a reality through their $4 program."
Launched in Tampa, Fla. in September 2006, Wal-Mart's $4 Prescription Program has been expanded to 49 states (Wal-Mart does not operate in-store pharmacies in its North Dakota stores). Wal-Mart has also introduced a similar discount program in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Brazil.
Today, the program is available at the more than 4,000 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market pharmacies throughout the United States and has saved Wal-Mart customers more than $1 billion since its inception, officials said.