Jan. 8: Walgreens said it planned to open more than 160 locations for VillageMD, a primary care practice company majorly owned by the retailer, by the end of 2022.
Jan. 12: Walgreens reduced its paid sick leave policies for workers who contract COVID-19 to five days. After five days, employees who are vaccinated or are exempt from inoculation are eligible for more paid days off.
Feb. 25: Walgreens partnered with Shipt to grow its online delivery services.
March 8: HHS, Labcorp and Walgreens teamed up to offer free at-home COVID-19 tests.
March 30: Walgreens Boots Alliance opened 22 robot-powered micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S. to fill prescriptions. In October, the company said the robots would trim pharmacist workloads by 25 percent and save more than $1 billion a year.
May 4: Linh Peters, Luke Rauch and Bala Visalatha were named senior vice presidents in the company’s retail and customer leadership team.
June 17: Walgreens partnered with health data company Pluto Health to launch a clinical trial business that aims to eliminate patient recruitment, diversity and enrollment challenges.
Aug. 30: Alethia Jackson was chosen as Walgreens’ next senior vice president of environmental, social and governance and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
Sept. 8: Walgreens formed a finance and technology committee through the appointments of Hsiao Wang as its senior vice president and CIO, and Inderpal Bhandari as a board of directors member.
Sept. 20: A year after buying a majority share of specialty pharmacy services provider Shields Health Solutions, Walgreens said it plans to pay $1.37 billion for the remaining 30 percent stake. Shields CEO Lee Cooper replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO John Standley Oct. 1.
Oct. 11: The pharmacy retail company said it plans to buy home healthcare company CareCentrix for $392 million.
Oct. 26: Walgreens removed all task-based metrics for evaluating its 24,000-plus pharmacy employees.
Nov. 7: VillageMD, which is largely owned by Walgreens, agreed to acquire physician practice group Summit Health for $8.9 billion.
Dec. 1: Walgreens launched a 24/7 delivery service that will include over-the-counter medications.
Dec 13: After proposing the terms in early November, Walgreens finalized its settlement for national opioid lawsuits for about $5 billion.
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