It was a rainy Thursday morning in Woonsocket, R.I., but that didn’t dissuade CVS Caremark stockholders from flocking to the company’s sprawling headquarters to attend its annual meeting of stockholders — an event that proved to be one filled with optimism as president and CEO Larry Merlo provided key highlights of 2011 and discussed how the company is reinventing pharmacy and capitalizing on its “integration sweet spots.”

The battle for public opinion and legislative sway was in full swing Monday as executives from the National Community Pharmacists Association lobbied congressional leaders regarding several pieces of "pro-patient, pro-pharmacist legislation." To counter that effort, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association issued some marketing firepower of its own.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has expressed its support for enactment of the Pharmacy Audit Integrity Program, a law that will establish standards in the pharmacy audit process conducted by pharmacy benefit management companies in the state of Minnesota.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on Wednesday accepted an amici curiae from the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League, the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices and U.S. PIRG (a federation of 28 nonprofit, nonpartisan state Public Interest Research Groups) on behalf of retail pharmacy plaintiffs in their suit to dismantle the Express Scripts-Medco merger.

Workers' compensation pharmacy costs took on an extra $2.1 billion in 2011 due to unnecessary use of more expensive drugs, according to a new report by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts.

Walmart and healthcare partner Humana are out with a new prescription drug program called Rx4Value that guarantees savings and relies on the proven strategy of improving affordability by restricting choice to generic drugs.

A federal judge in Pittsburgh will rule "later" on whether to block or allow a merger between pharmacy benefit managers Medco Health Solutions and Express Scripts, and is considering a request by two trade groups seeking to keep Medco's operations and assets separate from ESI while the lawsuit is pending, according to published reports.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association on Monday wrote the Wall Street Journal regarding the paper's endorsement last week of the Express Scripts-Medco merger approval.

“Straight over the cliff.” That may be the destination for many independent pharmacies now that the Federal Trade Commission has unconditionally approved the controversial merger of the nation’s second- and third-largest pharmacy benefit managers, a top pharmacy leader warned.

In the wake of an approved Express Scripts-Medco merger, Walgreens reiterated its consensus that Walgreens' participation in Medco's pharmacy network would continue without disruption.

When Express Scripts filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission that its merger with Medco could close as early as the week of April 2, that seemed to set off a firestorm of activity.