CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Rules of Retirement Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
Drugstores mull nonprescription Plan B sales
Wal-Mart, CVS reviewing FDA's approval of the 'morning-after' contraception pill for over-the-counter sale.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Discounter Wal-Mart and drugstore CVS said they are reviewing the Food and Drug Administration approval Thursday of the over-the-counter sale of its "morning-after" pill and could decide to sell it without prescription in their stores.

Wal-Mart (Charts), the No. 1 retailer, began stocking Plan B contraceptives - commonly referred to as the "morning-after pill" - at all of its pharmacies on March 20 this year.

walmart_store_front.03.jpg

At the same time, the company said it would maintain its conscientious objection policy, which lets employees who don't feel comfortable dispensing a prescription to refer customers to another pharmacist or pharmacy.

In a statement e-mailed to CNNMoney.com, company spokesman Kevin Gardner said Wal-Mart was awaiting details of what was approved by the FDA and specifically how the product can be sold [over the counter].

"Once we have those details, we will consider carrying the product for OTC," he said.

Mike DeAngelis, spokesman for CVS (Charts), the No. 2 drugstore chain behind Walgreen (Charts), said the company would not take any actions until it had reviewed the FDA's formal ruling on the matter.

"Once the FDA has made its review on Plan B available to us, we will review it and then work with the manufacturer to understand the new regulatory requirements surrounding the sales of Plan B without a prescription," DeAngelis said.

Over-the-counter Plan B will only be available to women 18 years and older. Women 17 years and younger still will need a prescription.

DeAngelis said nonprescription Plan B won't be available at CVS stores anytime soon.

"The manufacturer has indicated they would have to create new packaging to allow for dual OTC sales. This won't be available until the end of the year. So we'll use this timeframe to develop our procedures for selling non-prescription Plan B," DeAngelis said.

'Morning-after' pill wins key FDA approval.  Top of page

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.

Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions.
Manage alerts | What is this?
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy. Advertising Practices.
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.