Take Metformin? Let's see Express Scripts beat this one!

From John Curry, April 13, 2010

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2010/04/12/meijer-giant-eagle-offer-free-diabetes-drugs.html?sid=101

Meijer, Giant Eagle offering free diabetes drugs
April 12, 2010
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Meijer and Giant Eagle are offering free diabetes medications to customers with a prescription, upping the ante among grocery chains hoping to lure customers with free medications.

Metformin Immediate Release, the most commonly prescribed medicine to treat type 2 diabetes, now joins several types of antibiotics and prenatal vitamins now available at no charge at the Michigan-based grocery retailer, Meijer said yesterday.

Dosages offered include 500 mg, 850 mg and 1000 mg tablets, said Effie Steele, clinical services coordinator. Tablets will be dispensed at up to 100 at a time. The pills typically would cost a patient $14.30 for the 500 mg dosage and $41.99 for the 1000 mg dosage, spokesman Frank Guglielmi said.

Giant Eagle will offer five generic medications to treat diabetes, including Chlorpropamide, Glimepiride, Glipizide, Glyburide, and Metformin, at no charge to its customers with a prescription in its Columbus-area and Toledo stores, spokesman Mike Duffey said yesterday.

tturner@dispatch.com