Safeway joins the $4 per month US generic Rx sale

US grocery firm Safeway has announced the launch of a $4 per month supply of generic prescription medicines on hundreds of copy drugs, nearly two years after the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, opened a price war with its low cost program (Marketletters passim). The medicines available under the new marketing campaign include the antibiotic amoxicillin, atenolol for hypertension and levothyroxine for thyroid disease.

Safeway spokesman Greg TenEyck told the Washington Post: "we've been reacting to the competitive marketplace." A few weeks ago, Wal-Mart extended its own $4 per month scheme as well as a $9 rate for more expensive products. Another major retailer, Target, has matched Wal-Mart's offers. Other firms, including pharmacy chains, are offering various forms of discounts, including free antibiotics and seasonal influenza innoculations.

The Safeway campaign was trialled at stores in Houston and Dallas, Texas, in March before being officially launched in the District of Columbia and the neigboring states of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. In the Washington DC area, there are in-store pharmacies at 83 of the retailer's 110 outlets. The Post also reported that Safeway units in the midwestern Chicago, Illinois, area are carrying discounted prescriptions.