CVS Takes a Stand on Pseudoephedrine Products Company Moves All Single Ingredient Items Behind the Pharmacy Counter WOONSOCKET, R.I., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CVS/pharmacy (NYSE: CVS), America's largest retail pharmacy, has made the decision to move all over the counter single ingredient pseudoephedrine products behind the pharmacy counter as of July 1, 2005. Pseudoephedrine is the key precursor ingredient that can be converted into the illegal drug methamphetamine. After careful review of numerous state legislative proposals and law enforcement bulletins, CVS made the decision to move these products behind the counter in all of its 5,400 stores across 36 states over the next sixty days. "As a leader in our industry, we feel strongly that the private sector must step up to help to reduce offenders' access to high content forms of pseudoephedrine. We have chosen to target all the single ingredient products that both state and federal task forces have identified as the most frequently used products in the production of methamphetamine," commented Chris Bodine, Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at CVS. "As the largest pharmacy retailer in the country, we must balance the needs of our millions of customers who use these safe and highly effective cold and allergy products legitimately with individual state legislative and law enforcement efforts to stem the production of this illegal drug across the country." "We will continue to monitor this situation and communicate with federal, state and local officials to respond to changes in state law or new law enforcement initiatives. Our policy will also adapt to merchandise mix changes, especially given manufacturers' current plans to reformulate their existing cold and allergy products." About CVS CVS is America's largest retail pharmacy, operating more than 5,400 retail and specialty pharmacy stores in 36 states and the District of Columbia. With more than 40 years of dynamic growth in the retail pharmacy industry, CVS is committed to being the easiest pharmacy retailer for customers to use. CVS has created innovative approaches to serve the healthcare needs of all customers through its CVS/pharmacy stores; its online pharmacy, CVS.com; and its pharmacy benefit management and specialty pharmacy subsidiary, PharmaCare. General information about CVS is available through the Investor Relations portion of the Company's website, at http://investor.cvs.com/, as well as through the pressroom portion of the Company's website, at http://www.cvs.com/pressroom. CONTACT: Eileen Howard Dunn VP, Corporate Communications CVS/pharmacy 401-770-4561 Michael DeAngelis Manager, Corporate Communications CVS/pharmacy 401-770-2645 DATASOURCE: CVS/pharmacy CONTACT: Eileen Howard Dunn, VP, Corporate Communications, +1-401-770- 4561, or Michael DeAngelis, Manager, Corporate Communications, +1-401-770-2645 both of CVS/pharmacy Web site: http://www.cvs.com/

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