Wal-Mart expands its $4 drug plan

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday announced an addition of 11 new states in it's $4 generic prescription program, bringing the total to 38 states, and a total of 3,009 pharmacies. The company also announced an addition of 17 more prescriptions to the program.

The $4 generic prescription program, which was started by Wal-Mart in Florida in September, provides a 30-day supply of prescriptions at the discounted price.

Pressing an accelerator on its plan to reach all 50 states by as early as January with the discount program, Wal-Mart said the program is now available in 11 new states including West Virginia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah and Washington.

Wal-Mart already offers the program in 27 states including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Virginia.

Bentonville, Ark. based largest grocery retailer said the generic prescription drugs are now available in 502 additional pharmacy stores, including 36 in West Virginia and 44 in Massachusetts. It has a total of 3,960 US pharmacies.

Wal-Mart said its yesterday’s expansion also adds 17 varying dosages and forms, although no new drugs, to the discount list that previously had 314 generic prescriptions. With the addition, the list now totals 331 prescriptions. The list of generics comprises as many as 143 compounds in 26 therapeutic categories.

The program was originally slated to introduce in as many states as possible outside of Florida and as early as January 2007, but customer demand led the company to roll out the program sooner than scheduled.

"We've received an amazing amount of positive feedback from the millions of seniors, working families and uninsured who are already taking advantage of this program," said Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott.

"We've added more medicines to our program so we can extend these significant savings to even more Americans. No one should be denied access to the medications they need, and this program is a big step in moving our customers and communities toward access to affordable medicines in West Virginia."

As per Wal-Mart estimates, generic medicines generally cost between 30 percent and 60 percent lower than equivalent brand-name products. Wal-Mart also estimates that its list of $4 generic prescriptions represents more than quarter of the prescriptions currently dispensed in its stores countrywide.

To date, as Wal-Mart has extended its generic plan to 11 new states, 2.1 million new prescriptions have been filled in those states as compared to the equivalent time periods last year.