CVS

You could call it a retail all-star team.

With just weeks to go before its annual Industry Issues Summit conference — one of the most highly-anticipated, must-attend events on the drug store industry calendar — Drug Store News has announced another top-tier roster of some of the most talented and creative retail executives in the business for the annual thought-leadership/networking event.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. - CVS Health on Wednesday announced the national rollout of CVS Pay, an end-to-end mobile payment solution at CVS Pharmacy. CVS Pay is now part of the CVS Pharmacy mobile app, and integrates payment, prescription pickup and the ExtraCare loyalty program all into one quick scan at checkout.

Anyone without a clear vision of the link between wellness and beauty hasn’t heard CVS Health’s VP/merchandise manager for beauty and personal care Alex Perez-Tenessa describe the synergy.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

The health-beauty connection is a driving force for the company as it continues rolling out its new “Elevate Beauty” concept, which is now in about 2,000 of its stores.

This isn’t your parents’ private-label business any more. To be sure, the rules of the store brand game have changed over the years — price matters, but it certainly isn’t the only factor driving the growing consumer interest in private label that exists today.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, with 47,055 people dying in 2014 as a result of lethal drug overdoses — 18,893 of which were related to prescription pain relievers. The epidemic has drawn the attention of everyone from President Barack Obama to local first responders, all of whom have pointed to the drug naloxone as one of the critical first lines of defense in saving the lives of thousands from accidental overdose. Naloxone can reverse the effects of an overdose, but until recently it could only be accessed by prescription.

Two years ago, CVS Pharmacy made the bold decision to walk away from tobacco. It was the right move for a lot of reasons, but the fact remained: There was a $2 billion sales hole that needed to be plugged.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)

In the slightly less than one year since CVS Health acquired all of Target’s 1,669 pharmacies and 79 retail clinics, the company has completed the process of turning them into CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic locations, converting as many as 150 stores per week at the peak of the integration process.

(To download Special Report: Double Down on Health, click here.)