Financial impact of Aetna agreement

In a separate release late yesterday, the Company also announced a new long-term strategic Pharmacy Benefit Management ("PBM") agreement with Aetna. This groundbreaking collaboration is certainly among the largest and longest-term contracts ever to have been negotiated in the PBM industry. It encompasses approximately $9.5 billion in annual drug spend relating to approximately 9.7 million lives. The Company expects significant long-term financial benefits from this strategic relationship. The agreement is expected to be $0.01 to $0.02 dilutive to adjusted earnings per share in 2010 due to implementation expenses; to be $0.01 to $0.03 accretive to adjusted earnings per share in 2011; to be in excess of $0.05 accretive in 2012; and to generate more than double that level of accretion in 2013 once the contract is fully implemented.

2010 guidance revision

David Denton, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, stated "The weak economy has had a dampening impact on prescription utilization and consumer behavior across the retail pharmacy sector, which has affected our sales performance. Having said that, we continue to outpace the industry and to gain market share at a healthy pace."

In light of these business trends, the Company is lowering its retail same store sales guidance for the year to a range of 2.0% to 3.5% from a range of 3.5% to 5.5%. The Company is also lowering its guidance for adjusted earnings per share for 2010 to a range of $2.68 to $2.73 from a range of $2.77 to $2.84. The earnings guidance revision results from the reduced retail sales guidance as well as higher-than-expected legal accruals and expenses, and from the initial dilution related to implementation costs for the Aetna contract.

Real estate program

During the three months ended June 30, 2010, the Company opened 50 new retail drugstores, and closed four retail drugstores and two specialty pharmacy stores. In addition, the Company relocated 28 retail drugstores. As of June 30, 2010, the Company operated 7,109 retail drugstores, 45 specialty pharmacy stores, 18 specialty mail order pharmacies and six mail order pharmacies in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

SOURCE CVS Caremark Corporation