America's largest retail pharmacy is moving all over the counter single ingredient pseudoephedrine products behind the counter

Apr 27 2005

CVS/pharmacy, America's largest retail pharmacy, has made the decision to move all over the counter single ingredient pseudoephedrine products behind the pharmacy counter as of July 1, 2005.

Pseudoephedrine is the key precursor ingredient that can be converted into the illegal drug methamphetamine. After careful review of numerous state legislative proposals and law enforcement bulletins, CVS made the decision to move these products behind the counter in all of its 5,400 stores across 36 states over the next sixty days.

"As a leader in our industry, we feel strongly that the private sector must step up to help to reduce offenders' access to high content forms of pseudoephedrine. We have chosen to target all the single ingredient products that both state and federal task forces have identified as the most frequently used products in the production of methamphetamine," commented Chris Bodine, Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at CVS. "As the largest pharmacy retailer in the country, we must balance the needs of our millions of customers who use these safe and highly effective cold and allergy products legitimately with individual state legislative and law enforcement efforts to stem the production of this illegal drug across the country."

"We will continue to monitor this situation and communicate with federal, state and local officials to respond to changes in state law or new law enforcement initiatives. Our policy will also adapt to merchandise mix changes, especially given manufacturers' current plans to reformulate their existing cold and allergy products."