CVS and Walgreens will begin selling abortion pills this month
The two largest pharmacy chains in the United States will begin dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone this month, a move that could make access easier for some patients.
Officials at CVS and Walgreens said in interviews Friday that they had received certification to dispense mifepristone under guidelines the Food and Drug Administration issued last year. The chains plan to initially make the drug available in stores in a handful of states. They will not provide the medications by mail.
Both chains said they would gradually expand to all other states where abortion was legal and where pharmacies could legally dispense abortion pills — about half of the states.
Walgreens will begin supplying the pill in the coming week at a small number of its pharmacies in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois, said Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for the chain. “We will begin a phased rollout in select locations to allow us to ensure quality, safety and privacy for our patients, caregivers and team members,” he said.
CVS will begin dispensing medications at all of its pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island “in the coming weeks,” said Amy Thibault, a company spokeswoman.
The chains will monitor prospects in a few states, including Kansas, Montana and Wyoming, where abortion bans or strict restrictions have been enacted but imposed due to legal challenges.
Mr. Engerman said Walgreens “did not intend to dispense medications in states where the laws are unclear” to protect its pharmacists and staff members.
As for CVS, “we continually monitor and evaluate changes in state laws and will dispense mifepristone in any state where it is or becomes legal to do so,” Ms. Thibault said. In some states where abortion is legal, she says, pharmacists are prohibited from dispensing mifepristone because the law requires it to be done by doctors or in a hospital or clinic.
It is uncertain how much initial demand there will be for the service in physical pharmacies. In the states where the chains will begin dispensing abortion pills, they are already available in clinics or can be easily prescribed via telemedicine and sent by mail. But some women prefer to visit doctors, many of whom do not have the medications on hand. The new development allows doctors and other eligible healthcare providers to send a prescription to a pharmacy for the patient to pick up.
As availability in pharmacies increases, they could become a more popular alternative, and depending on the outcome of a case the Supreme Court will hear later this month, the pharmacy option could become more important.
In that case, abortion opponents sued the FDA in an attempt to remove mifepristone from the market in the United States. An appeals court ruling in that case did not go so far, but effectively banned the shipment of mifepristone and required in-person doctor visits. If the Supreme Court upholds this ruling, it could mean that patients would have to obtain mifepristone through a visit to a clinic, doctor or pharmacy.
To obtain certification, the pharmacy chains had to take specific steps, including ensuring that their automated systems protected the privacy of prescribers, who are certified under a special program that the FDA applies to mifepristone and several dozen other drugs.
Pharmacy certification is granted by manufacturers of mifepristone. Walgreens is certified by brand manufacturer Danco Laboratories and is seeking certification from generic manufacturer GenBioPro, Mr. Engerman said. CVS is certified by GenBioPro.
Medical abortion is a two-drug treatment that is now the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the United States and is typically used for twelve weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone, which blocks a hormone needed for pregnancy to develop, is taken first, followed 24 to 48 hours later by misoprostol, which causes contractions that expel pregnancy tissue.
The same regimen is also used for miscarriages, and those patients can now also obtain mifepristone from pharmacy chains.
Mifepristone has been closely regulated by the FDA since its approval in 2000, and doctors and other health care providers must obtain special certification to prescribe it. It was previously available primarily from prescribers or from telemedicine clinics or abortion services, with the pills typically shipped from one of two licensed mail-order pharmacies. Misoprostol has never been as severely restricted as mifepristone and is used for many different medical conditions. It is easily available from pharmacies through a typical prescription process.
The American Pharmacists Association has urged the FDA to allow retail pharmacies to distribute mifepristone even though the drug is unlikely to generate significant revenue. In a statement Last year, the association said it wanted the agency to “level the playing field by certifying any pharmacy that chooses to dispense this product.”
Shortly after the FDA policy change was announced in January 2023, Walgreens and CVS said they planned to become certified and offer mifepristone in states where law allows pharmacies to dispense it.
Walgreens later became the center of a consumer and political firestorm after it responded to threatening letters from Republican attorneys general in 21 states confirming that it would not provide the medication in those states.
Both chains have had protests outside their stores, mainly from anti-abortion advocates, and similar protesters interrupted a shareholders meeting at Walgreens Boots Alliance, the chain’s parent company.
CVS is the nation’s largest chain with more than 9,000 stores in all 50 states. Walgreens has approximately 8,500 stories in all states except North Dakota.
a handful of small, independent pharmacies started dispensing mifepristone last year.