Focus on culture, and then build a strategy. That was a key message that Doug Rauch, former president of Trader Joe’s, had for attendees Friday morning.

Fruth Pharmacy announced their commitment to replace medications containing pseudoephedrine, a nonprescription decongestant that can be used in the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine, with Nexafed, a PSE product formulated with Impede technology that disrupts the extraction and conversion of PSE to meth.

The Kroger Co. announced this week it raised more than $425,000 from customer and associate contributions and committed to a corporate gift of $50,000 for a total cash contribution of more than $475,000 to support Red Cross initiatives to assist storm relief efforts in Oklahoma.

Antitrust attorney and pharmacy benefit management legal expert David Balto on Friday monitored a mini-summit helping supermarket pharmacy better navigate the PBM universe.

Issues surrounding regulations, including product-label requirements, ranked third as a 2013 priority among board members of FMI, according to a poll taken in January, noted Patty Packard, director of nutrition and regulatory for Vestcom International, during an education breakout session Thursday.

Out of all retail pharmacy outlets, food stores have slightly increased their prescription sales, generating March year-to-date sales of $5.7 billion, up 0.5%, according to IMS Health data. Including drug, mail and independents, prescription sales totaled $58.3 billion, down 4.7%, reported Doug Long, VP industry relations for IMS Health, at an FMI education breakout.

Sam's Club will host free health screenings for men's health next month, the club retailer said.

Amy Myrdal Miller, director of programs and culinary nutrition at the Culinary Institute of America, and Annette Maggi, executive director of Retail Dietitians Business Alliance and president of Annette Maggi & Associates, headed up the education breakout session titled “Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten … except how to work in the food industry.”

Ownership has its privileges. Consider American Associated Pharmacies. Independent pharmacy owners who join this member-owned, national cooperative gain access to the purchasing, merchandising, distribution, managed-care contracting and back-end business services that help them compete locally on a more equal footing with their chain counterparts.

Chattem recently catapulted its Allegra brand into the anti-itch space with the launch of Allegra Anti-Itch Intensive Relief Cream.

There can't be too many tried-and-true, immediate-action calcium carbonate formulations among heartburn remedies, no matter how many proton-pump inhibitors dot that shelf's landscape. At least that's what Bayer Consumer is counting on with its line extension of Alka Seltzer Fruit Chews.