All CVS Caremark stores to stop tobacco sales from today

CVS Caremark, the second-largest US drugstore chain, will stop selling tobacco products in all of its stores starting today - a move health experts hoped would be followed by other major drugstore chains, USA Today reported.

The company had announced in February that it planned to drop tobacco by 1 October as the sales conflicted with its health care mission. Additionally, CVS would change its name to CVS Health, while retail stores would continue to be called CVS / Pharmacy (See: US Pharmacy chain CVS to stop cigarette sales at its 7,600 stores).

"Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health," said Larry J. Merlo, president and CEO of CVS, had said in a statement in February. "Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose."

The move will cost the company $2 billion in revenue annually or 1.6 per cent of its $125 billion average yearly rvenue, impacting  earnings in 2014 by about 19 cents a share.

CVS, the second-largest drugstore chain aftert Walgreens, manages pharmacy benefits for 65 million members. It has 900 walk-in medical clinics.

According to APA spokesowman Michelle Spinnler, the American Pharmacists Association called on drugstores to stop tobacco sales in March 2010 and several small, independent chains had done so. CVS was the first large chain to stop tobacco sales.

According to Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, CVS was stopping the sale of tobacco product a full month earliier than announced, sending a resounding message to the entire retail industry and to its customers that pharmacies should not be in the business of selling tobacco. He added, this was truly an example of a corporation leading and setting a new standard.

CVS is also launching a smoking-cessation campaign that includes an assessment of the smoker's "readiness to quit," education, medication support to help curb the desire to use tobacco and coaching to help people stay motivated and avoid relapses.

According to CVS, research showed its decision would have a big impact. A study the company would release Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs showed bans at pharmacies in Boston and San Francisco led to over 13 per cent fewer purchasers.

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking tobacco caused more than 5 million deaths per year globally and this figure was set to jump to 8 million annually by 2030. The US accounted for around 489,000 deaths, of which 49,000 were caused by second-hand smoke exposure.