Generic Discount Program Increased Online Sales

The generic prescription drug discount program introduced earlier this year by Wal-Mart Stores has prompted increased sales through the company Web site, as customers place orders for medications and prescription refills, according to Walmart.com CEO Carter Cast, Bloomberg/Chicago Tribune reports (Burke/Coleman-Lochner, Bloomberg/Chicago Tribune, 11/8).

Wal-Mart in September announced that the program -- under which some company pharmacies would sell 30-day prescriptions of certain generic medications for $4 -- would initially include 65 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market pharmacies in the Tampa, Fla., area and would expand statewide in early 2007 and possibly to other states in the future. Last month, Wal-Mart expanded the program statewide in Florida and to 26 additional states.

The program covers 143 different generic medications in a total of 314 dosages, according to Wal-Mart (California Healthline, 10/7).

Cast said that Walmart.com has experienced "triple-digit growth" in sales since the introduction of the program, the largest increase since the Web site launched in 1996 (Bloomberg/Chicago Tribune, 11/8).

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