Pfizer to Launch Discount-Drug Card
facturer Pfizer here unveiled its version of a prescription-drug discount card last week, saying it would allow certain low-income seniors and others eligible for Medicare to pay a flat fee of $15 per month per prescription for some common Pfizer drugs. CVS, Woonsocket, R.I., and Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark., both said they would accept the Pfizer Share Card, which joins the Glaxo Orange Card and the Novartis Care Card as initiatives from the drug companies to help seniors pay for their prescriptions. Publix Supermarkets, Lakeland, Fla., also has verbally committed to accepting the cards, Peter Brandt, senior vice president of finance, planning and business development, Pfizer, told SN in an interview last week. Brandt said the flat $15 fee "seemed in keeping with the parameters that are out there" in third-party coverage programs that require a patient co-payment. He said pharmacies would be reimbursed at a per-prescription rate similar to rates paid through managed care. Enrollment in the Pfizer Share Card program begins Feb. 15, and the cards will be accepted at retail pharmacies beginning March 1.
Stater Bros. Building First In-Store Pharmacy
CHINO HILLS, Calif. -- The Stater Bros. Market scheduled to open here in May will be the first in the chain that will be built from the ground up with a pharmacy inside it, Jack Brown, chairman, president and chief executive, told SN recently. The pharmacy will be operated under the Super Rx banner by independent pharmacist John Tilley, who currently leases the pharmacy departments in 11 Stater Bros. stores that were converted from Albertson's stores that already had pharmacies. Tilley also plans to open another three Super Rx outlets in Stater Bros. that have been converted from Albertson's.
VSDA Show Relocates to Rio Hotel & Casino
ENCINO, Calif. -- The Video Software Dealers Association here said last week that the 2002 VSDA Convention will take place in the Rio Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas this year, rather than in the Sands Expo Center and Venetian Hotel. The dates of the show remain the same: July 16 to 18. The move will allow the VSDA to house all its events for the show in a single venue, rather than splitting events between two locations.
