WARNING: This Post Will Turn You Upside Down
"The so-called inversion practice, which has become increasingly popular among life sciences companies, has come under intense scrutiny in Washington, where Obama administration officials and members of Congress have been considering ways to halt the exodus."
Then why was it written into law and allowed to go on so long?
It's an erection (sic) year, right? And because the ca$h-grabbing government is looking for all the loot it can get its hands on to wave at bond-buyers.
Inver$ion looks like it is becoming a "bad" word, same as the word pharmaceutical.
Also see: Missouri sues Walgreen on pricing
"Walgreen to pay $80m to settle drug-violations case; DEA says it let painkillers get to addicts, dealers" by Curt Anderson | Associated Press June 12, 2013
MIAMI — Federal authorities have reached an $80 million civil settlement with the Walgreen Co. pharmacy chain over violations that allowed tens of thousands of units of powerful painkillers such as oxycodone to illegally wind up in the hands of drug addicts and dealers, officials said Tuesday.
Which indirectly created the surge in heroin addiction. At least someone got rich.
Mark R. Trouville, chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami field office, said Walgreens committed numerous record-keeping and dispensing violations of the Controlled Substances Act at a major East Coast distribution center in Jupiter, Fla., and at six retail pharmacies around the state.
The drugs also included hydrocodone and Xanax.
Authorities said the Jupiter center failed to flag suspicious orders of drugs it received from pharmacies, and the retail outlets routinely filled prescriptions that clearly were not for a legitimate medical use.
The upshot was that many more doses of prescription drugs were available illegally on the street.
Trouville called Walgreens’ actions ‘‘a clear example of inexcusable corporate conduct that existed only for greed and profit. National pharmaceutical chains are not exempt from following the law.’’
Hey, it is the ‘‘the business of medicine,’’ right?
Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreen Co. has more than 8,000 stores nationwide and had sales in 2012 of $72 billion, according to the company’s website.
‘‘As the largest pharmacy chain in the US, we are fully committed to doing our part to prevent prescription drug abuse,’’ said Kermit Crawford, president of pharmacy, health, and wellness at Walgreen.
‘‘We have worked closely with the DEA over the past several months to reach this agreement.’’
Florida has been a major East Coast source of highly addictive painkillers for illicit dealers and addicts.
An ongoing crackdown in recent years — including the passage of better prescription monitoring laws and numerous arrests of doctors, clinic operators, and pharmacy owners — has reduced the number of illegal ‘‘pill mills’’ operating in the state.
Related: Cleaning Up in Connecticut
The US attorney in Miami, Wifredo Ferrer, said the Walgreens civil penalty was the largest in the history of the Controlled Substances Act.
He said the company also agreed not to dispense certain tightly controlled drugs until September 2014 through the Jupiter distribution center and until May 2014 at the six Walgreens locations: two in Fort Pierce and one each in Hudson, Port Richey, Fort Myers, and Oviedo.
‘‘We’re tackling the problem from an entirely new angle,’’ he said of pursuing a civil penalty rather than criminal prosecution.
It is obviou$ now that pharmaceuticals are right up there with banks when it comes to being too big to jail.
The settlement also resolves similar allegations against Walgreens retail pharmacies in Colorado, Michigan, and New York, Ferrer said. No criminal charges have been filed.
Excuse me; I have to go take a pill to calm down.
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In addition to the penalty and the temporary ban on dispensing certain drugs at the selected Florida locations, the settlement requires the company to create a new department to ensure regulatory compliance and a new training program for employees. Walgreen must also end the practice of compensating pharmacists based on prescriptions filled.
Crawford said that the $80 million penalty was reserved by Walgreen in previous financial quarters and that the total impact of the agreement and related costs would be between 4 and 6 cents per share in the third quarter.
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"Walgreen’s first-quarter profit jumps 68 percent" by Tom Murphy | Associated Press December 21, 2013
Walgreen’s fiscal first-quarter earnings soared 68 percent as investments in other companies paid off for the nation’s largest drugstore chain, but a slowdown in generic drug introductions helped squeeze profitability.
The Deerfield Ill., company said Friday that it booked a total of $376 million in income during the quarter ended Nov. 30 from its stakes in European health and beauty retailer Alliance Boots and US pharmaceutical wholesaler AmerisourceBergen Corp.
Oh, good! That means they can pay the fine and have $ome left over. The health of Walgreens is important.
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Walgreen, which runs 8,200 drugstores, earned $695 million, or 72 cents per share, in a fiscal first-quarter performance that matched analyst expectations. That was up from $413 million, or 43 cents, a year ago, when the company absorbed Alliance Boots deal charges and took a $24 million hit after Hurricane Sandy forced it to temporarily close hundreds of stores.
Revenue climbed 6 percent to $18.33 billion, while analysts forecast $18.35 billion.
Walgreen said prescription sales at stores open at least a year jumped 7.2 percent in the quarter, while sales from the front end, or the store areas outside its pharmacy, climbed 2.4 percent.
Think that has anything to do with soaring profits?
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Chief executive Greg Wasson told analysts during a Friday morning conference call that Walgreen has administered 1.1 million more flu shots than it did last year, despite a slow start to the cough, cold, and flu season. He said that will help the company’s non-flu vaccine program.
And now we have Ebola on our doorstep.
‘‘We continue to see tremendous potential to grow our share of this $7.4 billion market,’’ he said
The drugstore chain’s pharmacy business benefited last year from a wave of new generic drugs, which hurt revenue but helped profit....
‘‘We are continuing to see a value-conscious consumer and the impact of a soft economy,’’ Wasson said.
He said the company hopes to make better use in future promotions of information it gets on customer buying habits from its Balance Rewards program, which Walgreen started last year.
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Speaking of habits:
"Walgreen investor opposes move abroad" New York Times May 14, 2014
NEW YORK — As Walgreen Co., the big drugstore chain, considers a deal that would allow it to reincorporate abroad, many shareholders are elated, saying it could save millions of dollars a year on taxes.
But at least one Walgreen investor wants the company to remain in the United States. CtW Investment Group, which owns less than 1 percent of Walgreen’s shares, sent a letter Tuesday to the company’s management, making the case against such a transaction.
“Redomiciling overseas would likely be detrimental to the interests and rights of long-term shareholders, heralding a step backward in the company’s corporate governance,” Dieter Waizenegger, the chief executive of CtW, wrote in the letter, sent to James A. Skinner, Walgreen’s chairman.
It is what we are all living under, and does it ever $uck.
The transaction Walgreen is considering is known as an inversion, in which a US company acquires a foreign competitor and reincorporates in a low-tax country. Companies then often pay lower rates on earnings generated outside the United States and can raise cash overseas more easily.
Inversions are increasingly popular with companies and investors, and the pace of such deals has picked up. Pfizer recently became the best-known company to attempt such a move with its proposed acquisition of AstraZeneca.
Walgreen could be next. Last month, some shareholders pressed management to consider such a move. Walgreen is in the middle of a two-part acquisition of Alliance Boots, the British drugstore chain.
But CtW, which advises union pension funds, says such a move would be a mistake.
“We believe that a reincorporation overseas would be decidedly against the interests of Walgreen shareholders, who are overwhelmingly US-based,” CtW wrote.
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Turns out they are not going after all.
