text: Walgreen's Monthly Sales Growth Will Be Challenging In The Near-Term -- Trefis
  Walgreen's monthly sales declined again in February after a turnaround in January
  Prescription sales account for about two-thirds of Walgreen's total sales
  Growth in prescriptions filled monthly will decelerate as substantial time has elapsed since the new agreement with Express Scripts
  More branded drugs are expected to be replaced by generics in 2013, which will mitigate benefits arising from filling more prescriptions
  We expect monthly pharmacy sales to be under pressure in the near term as the negative impact of generics will outweigh the benefits of more prescriptions
  The largest drugstore chain in the U.S., Walgreen's (NYSE:WAG) stocks has see-sawed over the past three months. After turning around a year long decline in sales in January, the company reported a marginal decline in sales in February. The decline was a result of an extra day in February since 2012 was a leap year. Excluding the extra day, 2013 February sales increased 1.5%. The growth was substantially lower than the almost 6.5% growth in January, and was surprising because the company continued to regain Express Scripts prescriptions lost to competitors in the first half of last year. Prescriptions filled at comparable stores grew by 6.5% in February, including a negligible positive impact from the flu season. The disappointing results led to the company's share price fluctuating by almost 4% on 5 March, before recovering to $41.
  Almost two-thirds of Walgreen's total sales are through the pharmacy. In this article we take a look at the factors contributing to the mixed performance from the segment and how they can impact monthly sales in the near future.
  View our complete analysis for Walgreens
  Growth In Prescriptions Filled Set To Decelerate
  Walgreen filled about 90 million Express Scripts prescriptions in 2011. The disagreement on the pricing terms resulted in the two companies ending their arrangement in the beginning of 2012, and is estimated to have cost Walgreen a loss of $5.3 billion in annual sales. Customers were forced to switch to another pharmacy or pay more for drugs if they continued to use Walgreen. The dispute took a grimmer turn when Express Scripts acquired another pharmacy benefit manager Medco in April, further costing Walgreen millions of prescriptions. In July, the two companies reached an agreement which allowed Express Scripts customers to return to Walgreen starting September 15, 2012. Since then, Walgreen has successfully turned around the decline in prescriptions filled and reported growth in prescriptions filled of about 14% and 6.5% in January and February respectively.
  As considerable time has elapsed since the new arrangement came into force, we expect the growth to decelerate in the coming months. We also expect competitors such as CVS Caremark (NYSE:CVS) and Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD) to retain substantial number of Express Scripts customers they gained during the dispute. The return of Express Scripts prescriptions leads us to believe that the company's share in the prescriptions filled annually in the U.S. will increase from 18.5% in 2012 to 19% by the end of 2013.
  Generics To Mitigate The Benefits Arising From An Increase In Prescriptions Filled
  An estimated $260 billion of prescription drugs sales are scheduled to lose patent between now and 2018. [1] In all, blockbusters with a combined $170 billion in annual sales will lose patent between 2012 and 2015. ((Cliffhanger, The Economist, December 2011)) In 2012, an estimated $35 billion of prescription drug sales were exposed to generic competition. Hence, the rate at which branded drugs get replaced by generic alternatives is expected to continue at near 2012 levels in the near term.
  Our estimate is in line with the pharmacy sales performance in January and February. Comparable store pharmacy sales increased by 6% in January and were flat in February. Both of these growth rates were below that of the number of prescriptions filled during the corresponding months. The comparable store pharmacy sales were negatively impacted by 6 percentage points in both the months due to generic drug introductions in the last 12 months.
  As a result, we expect the sales from the pharmacy segment to stay under pressure in the coming months. The number of prescriptions filled by the company should keep increasing at a slower pace as more Express Scripts customers return. Simultaneously, the introduction of more generics will mitigate the positive impact of a growth in prescriptions. We expect the impact of generic introductions to outweigh benefits from new prescriptions. As pharmacy sales account for about two-thirds of Walgreen's total sales, its in the March-May quarter are also expected to be under pressure.
  Hohokham commented 5 years ago
  WALGREEN Co.(NYSE - WAG) Close: $42.78 Chg: $1.74 4.24% on 03/13. WOW, looks like once again Trefis never saw THAT one coming!!