Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are medicines sold directly to a consumer without a requirement for a prescription from a healthcare professional, as opposed to prescription drugs, which may be supplied only to consumers possessing a valid prescription. In many countries, OTC drugs are selected by a regulatory agency to ensure that they contain ingredients that are safe and effective when used without a physician's care. OTC drugs are usually regulated according to their active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) rather than final products. By regulating APIs instead of specific drug formulations, governments allow manufacturers the freedom to formulate ingredients, or combinations of ingredients, into proprietary mixtures.
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is a Canadian retail pharmacy chain based in Toronto, Ontario. It has more than 1,300 stores in nine provinces and two territories.
The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) Inc. is a Canadian drugstore chain headquartered in Varennes, Quebec. It has more than 400 franchised locations in New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec under the PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Clinique, and PJC Santé banners. The company was once the third largest distributor and retailer of pharmaceuticals and related products in North America, with nearly 2,200 drug stores. Its American stores have been sold to Rite Aid.
CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963.
Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, and photo services. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1901, and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. On December 31, 2014, Walgreens and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots merged to form a new holding company, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company, which retained its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBA The company was found by a federal jury to have "substantially contributed to" the opioid crisis.
Hy-Vee is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and soon Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Hy-Vee was founded in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in a small brick building known as the Beaconsfield Supply Store, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Schnucks is a supermarket chain. Based in the St. Louis area, the company was founded in 1939 with the opening of a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) store in north St. Louis and currently operates over 100 stores in four states throughout the Midwest. Schnucks also ran stores under the Logli Supermarkets and Hilander Foods banners. Schnucks is one of the largest privately-held supermarket chains in the United States and dominates the St. Louis metro grocery market.
Alliance Boots GmbH was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom.
Longs Drugs is an American chain owned by parent company CVS Health with approximately 70 drugstores throughout the state of Hawaii and formerly in the Continental US.
An independent pharmacy is a retail pharmacy that is not directly affiliated with any chain of pharmacies and is not owned by a publicly traded company. Independent pharmacies are pharmacist-owned, privately held businesses in varying practice settings. They include single-store operations, pharmacist-owned multiple store locations, franchise, compounding, long-term care (LTC), specialty, and supermarket pharmacy operation. Independent pharmacy owners generally have more flexibility to build personalized customer relationships and they strive to differentiate their services from big-chain corporations.
IntercomPlus is the Walgreen Company's proprietary pharmacy computer system. It was founded as Intercom in 1981, and was the first large scale retail pharmacy computer system. It relies on VSAT satellite access and/or broadband connections to link the over 8,000 Walgreens retail, mail service, and specialty pharmacies. Through its usage, Intercom made Walgreens the largest private user of satellite transmission data in the world, second only to the U.S. Government. The design of the system enables seamless store-to-store prescription filling, making filling a refill at a location other than where it was filled originally essentially no different from filling it again at the original location.
Thrifty White Pharmacy is an American pharmacy chain with operations in six states, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa headquartered in Plymouth, MN. The firm specializes in filling prescriptions, long term care consulting, community outreach, and specialty services. As of September 2016, Thrifty White received full URAC accreditation for its specialty pharmacy.
CVS Health Corporation is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company's headquarters is in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Pharmacy in China involves the activities engaged in the preparation, standardization and dispensing of drugs, and its scope includes the cultivation of plants that are used as drugs, the synthesis of chemical compounds of medicinal value, and the analysis of medicinal agents. Pharmacists in China are responsible for the preparation of the dosage forms of drugs, such as tablets, capsules, and sterile solutions for injection. They compound physicians', dentists', and veterinarians' prescriptions for drugs. Pharmacological activities are also closely related to pharmacy in China.
A pharmacy is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about healthcare and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community. Mail-order dispensing is a recent development.
China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd., which conducts business as China Nepstar, is China's largest retail drugstore chain, based on the number of directly operated stores. It is headquartered in Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
The Lane Drug Company of Ohio, was a discount drugstore chain in the United States that was originally based in Toledo, Ohio. On 10 April 1989, the chain was acquired by Rite Aid Corporation of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and currently operates as a division of Rite Aid.
Boots UK Limited, trading as Boots, is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom and other countries and territories including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand and Indonesia.
Amazon Pharmacy is an American online pharmacy which is a subsidiary of Amazon. The business was launched on November 17, 2020, initially offering pharmacy service only in the United States.
