Wal-Mart Slashes Prescription Drug Prices 70 Percent

(NEW YORK)—Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing pressure from critics who call its employee health care coverage inadequate, plans to begin selling nearly 300 generic prescription drugs for a sharply reduced price of $4 for a month's supply.

The world's biggest retailer said Thursday that it will test the program in Florida and it will include 291 generic drugs available for conditions from allergies to high-blood pressure. The plan is available to its employees and customers, including those without insurance. Wal-Mart officials said the reduced price represents a savings to the customer of up to 70 percent on some drugs.

"Wal-Mart is taking this step so our customers and associates can get the medicines they need at a cost they can afford," Bill Simon, executive vice president of the company's professional services division, said in announcing the plan at a Tampa, Fla., store.

The program will be launched on Friday at 65 Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sams' Club pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area and will be expanded to the entire state in January.

Simon wouldn't be specific about why Florida and specifically the Tampa Bay area was chosen for the rollout of the initiative, saying only that there was a need for it there. The company said it plans to expand the program to as many states as possible next year.

Simon said the 291 generic drugs include "the most commonly prescribed drugs for the some of the most common illnesses that face Americans today, including cardiac disease, asthma, diabetes, glaucoma, Parkinson's (disease) and thyroid conditions."

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