Wal-Mart offers drugs by mail

FARGO (AP) — Wal-Mart has begun offering discount drugs to North Dakotans through the mail.

Wal-Mart’s generic prescription drug discounts are not available from any of its 10 Supercenters in North Dakota because of the state’s pharmacy ownership law. The mail-order program will provide the first access for North Dakota consumers to Wal-Mart’s $4 generic prescription program.

Wal-Mart and other chains have been vocal critics of the North Dakota law that requires pharmacies to be majority-owned by pharmacists licensed in the state. An effort in the Legislature to repeal the law failed earlier this year.

Mike Schwab, executive vice president of the North Dakota Pharmacists Association, said Wal-Mart’s marketing program isn’t unusual, since consumers already have access to a wide variety of mail-order prescription drug services.

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