From resolving generic drug cost lawsuits to expanding care offerings, here are five moves from Walgreens Becker's has covered recently:
1. Walgreens digital health platform Walgreens Find Care has added virtual oncology care company Jasper Health to its online marketplace. Jasper Health uses chat, telemedicine and human coaching to provide psychosocial support to cancer patients.
2. Walgreens Health is partnering with Buckeye Health Plan to expand its Health Corners service to Medicaid members in five Ohio locations this summer. By the end of 2022, the company expects to open about 100 locations nationwide for its Health Corners, which are clinic-like spaces in Walgreens stores where customers can meet with a pharmacist or registered nurse to discuss medications and health-tech devices at no extra cost.
3. Walgreens partnered with health data company Pluto Health to launch a clinical trial business that aims to eliminate patient recruitment, diversity and enrollment challenges. The clinical trial business will use Walgreens' patient data, technology assets and retail locations to create a clinical trial model that can increase patient enrollment as well as racial and ethnic diversity in sponsor-led drug development research.
4. Citing a lack of childproof packaging, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled about 137,300 units of acetaminophen from Walgreens. The CPSC issued the recall with the caution of "a risk of poisoning if the contents are swallowed by young children." No incidents or injuries have been reported.
5. Walgreens agreed to shell out $105 million in cash to its shareholders June 23 after a seven-year class-action lawsuit about the spike in generic drug prices and reimbursement rates. In the initial complaint on April 10, 2015, investors accused Walgreens of concealing the impact of higher drug costs on its pharmacy business before the company's stock price fell.