Walmart will expand its specialty pharmacy operations

Walmart is expanding its “autoimmune-focused” specialty pharmacy business to more than 30 locations in nine states as retailers ramp up the more lucrative aspects of the prescription drug business.

The nation’s largest retailer, which has long had traditional pharmacies in its stores, said Thursday it would open 25 new autoimmune disease-focused “Specialty Pharmacies of the Community” across five states.

The expansion brings the total number of autoimmune disease-focused specialty pharmacies to 31 in nine states, up from a half-dozen currently in four states. Such pharmacies will be located in Alabama, Idaho, Louisiana, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Wisconsin after the expansion.

Specialty pharmacies are an increasingly important player in the U.S. healthcare system, given the flood of expensive biotechnology-derived drugs on the market. Such medications are more complicated than pills and capsules you can buy at the corner drugstore or a traditional Walmart pharmacy and often require specialized administration, refrigeration, packaging and patient instructions.

Walmart, which announced three months ago that it will close its retail health clinics and its telehealth operations, joins rivals including drugstore giants CVS Health and Walgreens, as well as supermarket chains that have expanded their specialty pharmacy operations. Walgreens will launch Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy next month, a $24 billion company that integrates a new pharmacy equipped to handle gene and cell therapies with its existing pharmacy assets, including major specialty pharmacy and home delivery business AllianceRx.

In Walmart’s case, a “Community Specialty Pharmacy” is a Walmart-owned retail pharmacy with “specially trained pharmacy staff, a secondary specialty designation, and an offering consisting of condition-specific specialty services,” according to the company. Unlike some rivals that have specialty pharmacies in hospitals and healthcare systems or in locations other than their drugstores, Walmart is adding the specialty pharmacies to its stores.

Walmart already has dozens of pharmacies that specialize in the needs of people with the HIV virus, so the additional Autoimmune locations will provide a specialty pharmacy presence in 158 store locations across the US.

“We have them in the stores — because when you think about caring for these conditions — we can also provide nutrition and over-the-counter products,” Aleata Postell, group director of Walmart’s specialty pharmacy, said in an interview. “We can bring everything together there.”

When it comes to the autoimmune category of treatments, such drugs have been among the most expensive for insurers and employers in recent years and include brands like Humira, Enbrel and Remicade, as well as new, cheaper biosimilar versions known to treat everything from autoimmune diseases. such as rheumatoid arthritis and gastrointestinal disorders, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, to dermatological conditions, including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

“These new locations will continue to make this specialty care more accessible,” said Kevin Host, senior vice president of pharmacy at Walmart. “Since we piloted this effort less than a year ago, our teams have seen the need and recognized how they can impact the communities we serve in meaningful ways. I look forward to the incredible connections our pharmacists will make with our patients.”