Please note: This review reflects information we gathered on the date it was researched and may now be out of date. Providers frequently change their pricing, plans, medications, and policies. Any ratings, reviews, and customer feedback are gathered from publicly available online sources and may have since changed or no longer be accurate. Always do your own research and confirm the latest details directly with the provider before making any decision.
CVS Health Review
The pharmacy that fills your prescription, the manager that decides whether it is covered, and the insurer that pays are the same company. Here is what that has meant for GLP-1 access.
CVS Health
Your Pharmacy, Your PBM, Your InsurerDiary date, 54 days away: CVS Caremark announced on 28 May 2026 that Zepbound returns as a preferred option on 1 October 2026, and that the new-to-market block on Foundayo (orforglipron), Lilly's oral GLP-1, came off on 1 June 2026. Both Wegovy presentations keep preferred status. Ring your plan before 1 October and ask whether your formulary is the standard commercial template.
The context: the same company dropped it. Effective 1 July 2025, Caremark made Wegovy 2.4mg preferred on its largest commercial template and stopped covering Zepbound — a template that press reporting put at roughly 25 to 30 million people. Its own FY2025 annual report does not mention Wegovy, Zepbound, semaglutide or tirzepatide even once.
Two phrases from the filing worth reading twice: "The CVS Weight Management™ program optimizes utilization of GLP-1 medication", and formularies which "help guide members to choose lower cost alternatives through appropriate financial incentives". Separately, the FTC's September 2024 complaint alleges the company's PBM subsidiaries engaged in practices that "artificially" increased insulin costs; an appeal is pending in the Eighth Circuit.
Scale, per the FY2025 10-K: ~9,000 retail locations, >1,000 walk-in and primary care clinics, >800 MinuteClinics, a PBM with ~87 million plan members, and Aetna covering >37 million people. Pharmacy same store sales rose 18.0% in 2025, attributed primarily to "pharmacy drug mix, including branded GLP-1 drugs". Front store same store sales rose 1.2% — and the front store is the only part this affiliate link pays on.
Affiliate disclosure: GLP1Drugs.org earns 3% of order value on cvs.com/shop, on NET 90 payment terms. We earn nothing whatsoever on your prescription, and roughly 30 cents on a $10 sharps container — payable in about four months. Verified 8 August 2026.
Visit CVSOur Top Recommended Provider: CoreAge Rx
After reviewing dozens of GLP-1 telehealth providers, CoreAge Rx is the one we recommend most. CoreAge Rx is one of our partners — read on for why we recommend them:
Flat-Rate Pricing
Same cost at every dose level — no price jumps as you titrate up.
Verified Pharmacies
US-licensed physicians and NABP-verified 503A compounding pharmacies you can trust.
Everything Included
Medication, supplies, free shipping, and ongoing clinical support — no hidden fees.
Active Community of Members
Ask questions, share progress, and get answers from other patients on the same journey — alongside ongoing clinical support from your care team.
54
Days Until Zepbound Is Preferred Again
87M
PBM Plan Members
+18.0%
Pharmacy Same-Store Sales On GLP-1 Mix
0
Mentions Of These Drugs In The 10-K
What We Verified
Company figures and quotations from CVS Health's Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed 10 February 2026. Formulary dates from CVS Caremark's own 28 May 2026 release. Checked 8 August 2026.
Zepbound Returns As Preferred On 1 October 2026
CVS Caremark announced on 28 May 2026 that it would reintroduce Zepbound as a preferred option from 1 October 2026, and remove the new-to-market block on Foundayo (orforglipron), Lilly's oral GLP-1, from 1 June 2026. That is 54 days away from the date of this review
The Same Company Stopped Covering It On 1 July 2025
Effective 1 July 2025, Caremark made Wegovy 2.4mg the preferred GLP-1 for obesity on its largest commercial template formulary and stopped covering Zepbound. Press reporting put the template at roughly 25 to 30 million people; CVS's own release names no figure
"Optimizes Utilization" Is The Company's Own Phrase
From the FY2025 10-K: "The CVS Weight Management™ program optimizes utilization of GLP-1 medication and provides the label-recommended lifestyle support and coaching to maximize and maintain weight loss on these therapies". In PBM language, utilization management means controlling use
GLP-1s Drove An 18% Rise In Pharmacy Same-Store Sales
The 10-K attributes an 18.0% increase in pharmacy same store sales in 2025 to "pharmacy drug mix, including branded GLP-1 drugs". Front store same store sales — the part this affiliate link pays on — rose 1.2%
The FTC Alleges Its PBM Arm Inflated Insulin Costs
Quoted from the 10-K: in September 2024 the FTC filed an administrative complaint against the three largest PBMs and their group purchasing organisations, "including subsidiaries of the Company", alleging practices that "artificially" increased insulin costs. An appeal is pending in the Eighth Circuit
It Sits On Three Sides Of Your Prescription
About 9,000 retail locations, a PBM with roughly 87 million plan members, and Aetna covering more than 37 million people. The pharmacy that dispenses, the manager that decides, and the insurer that pays are one company
Fifteen Months Of Somebody Else Deciding
None of the dates below was set by a prescriber.
| Date | What Changed | What It Meant |
|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2025 | Wegovy 2.4mg made the preferred GLP-1 for obesity; Zepbound coverage stopped | Switch molecule, pay cash, or seek an exception |
| 28 May 2026 | CVS Caremark announces expanded GLP-1 coverage options | Reversal announced, four months before it takes effect |
| 1 June 2026 | New-to-market block removed on Foundayo (orforglipron), where plans approve coverage | An oral option becomes reachable |
| 1 October 2026 | Zepbound returns as a preferred option alongside Wegovy injectable and oral | Call your plan first — templates vary |
Do not change anything on the strength of a review. Confirm with your plan, then discuss with your prescriber whether switching back is the right clinical decision. Our provider reviews cover the cash-pay routes worth benchmarking against, and our side-effects guide covers what to watch when a molecule changes.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- ✓Zepbound returns as a preferred option on 1 October 2026, and Foundayo's new-to-market block came off on 1 June 2026 — genuinely more choice than a year ago
- ✓Both Wegovy injectable and oral retain preferred status, so members already established on semaglutide should not be forced to switch
- ✓Roughly 9,000 retail locations means a real pharmacist you can speak to in person, which telehealth-only routes cannot offer
- ✓More than 800 MinuteClinic locations and over 1,000 walk-in and primary care clinics
- ✓Front-of-store sells the sharps answer: the CVS Complete Needle Collection & Disposal System and the Sharps Compliance TakeAway Medication Recovery System
- ✓A licensed pharmacy chain, which is where injection supplies should come from rather than a marketplace
- ✓Caremark's formulary decisions are made by a named committee of doctors, pharmacists and other medical experts described in the filing
- ✓As a public company its claims are checkable in SEC filings rather than only in press releases
- ✓Its own filing discloses the FTC insulin complaint plainly rather than burying it
Cons
- ✕The same company that restored Zepbound coverage in 2026 removed it in 2025, and neither decision involved your prescriber
- ✕The 10-K never once mentions Wegovy, Zepbound, semaglutide or tirzepatide, despite a formulary decision that reshaped access for tens of millions
- ✕"Optimizes utilization" is what the filing says the weight-management programme does to GLP-1 medication
- ✕The filing describes formularies as guiding members "to choose lower cost alternatives through appropriate financial incentives" — that is your copay doing the persuading
- ✕The FTC alleges the company's PBM subsidiaries engaged in practices that artificially increased insulin costs; CVS is defending while seeking a negotiated resolution
- ✕Vertical integration means the entity deciding whether your drug is covered and the entity being paid to dispense it share a parent
- ✕Aetna exited the ACA public exchanges effective January 2026, so some people lost that coverage route entirely
- ✕Net income attributable to CVS Health fell to $1.77 billion in 2025 from $4.61 billion in 2024 and $8.34 billion in 2023 — a company under margin pressure sets formularies
- ✕Pen needles are a pharmacy-counter item, so the front-of-store search results are dominated by stationery and sewing needles
- ✕The affiliate programme covers cvs.com/shop only at 3% on NET 90 terms, so we earn nothing on the prescription that actually matters
Our Verdict
3.4 / 5 — a genuinely useful pharmacy, attached to a benefit manager you should treat as a counterparty.
Most of what a reader needs from this review is a single date. CVS Caremark announced on 28 May 2026 that it would reintroduce Zepbound as a preferred option from 1 October 2026, and that it had removed the new-to-market block on Foundayo — orforglipron, Lilly's oral GLP-1 — from 1 June 2026, with both the injectable and oral forms of Wegovy retaining preferred status. That is 54 days from the date of this page, and it is unambiguously good news for anyone who was moved off tirzepatide. The context is what makes it complicated. Effective 1 July 2025, the same organisation made Wegovy 2.4mg the preferred GLP-1 for obesity on its largest commercial template formulary and stopped covering Zepbound — a template that press reporting placed at roughly 25 to 30 million people. The stated rationale was to force manufacturers to compete on price, which is a defensible thing for a PBM to do and is precisely what PBMs are hired for. But for the person taking the drug it meant switching molecules, paying cash, or fighting for an exception, on grounds unrelated to how they were responding. The president of CVS Caremark, Ed DeVaney, described the 2026 reversal as "creating access and options that would not have existed without our leadership in the market." Readers can weigh that against the sequence.
The reason a formulary decision belongs in a shopping review is structural. As of 31 December 2025, per the annual report, CVS Health had approximately 9,000 retail locations, more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics, more than 800 MinuteClinics, a pharmacy benefit manager with approximately 87 million plan members, and an insurance arm serving an estimated more than 37 million people, alongside a Caremark network of about 63,000 retail pharmacies. The entity deciding whether your GLP-1 is covered, the entity paid to dispense it, and often the entity insuring you share one parent. The filing is candid about how the persuasion works — clients can lower plan costs "by setting different member payment levels for different products on their drug lists or 'formularies,' which helps guide members to choose lower cost alternatives through appropriate financial incentives" — and about what its weight-management service does, which is that it "optimizes utilization of GLP-1 medication". Utilization management is the industry's term for controlling use. That phrase is doing real work in a sentence that otherwise reads like coaching.
Two further items from the filing deserve to be in front of readers. First, the commercial fact: pharmacy same store sales rose 18.0% in 2025, which the company attributes primarily to "pharmacy drug mix, including branded GLP-1 drugs", while front store same store sales rose 1.2%. These medicines are the largest new revenue event in this company's retail pharmacy in years, which is worth knowing when reading its statements about managing their use. Second, the regulatory one, quoted directly: in September 2024 the FTC filed an administrative complaint against the three largest PBMs and their affiliated group purchasing organisations, "including subsidiaries of the Company", alleging practices that "artificially" increased insulin costs; CVS is defending itself while attempting to reach a negotiated resolution, and after a district court rejected a constitutional challenge the matter is on appeal to the Eighth Circuit. That is an allegation and not a finding, and CVS is entitled to contest it. But insulin is the closest analogue to a GLP-1 in the American pricing system, and a federal regulator alleging that PBM mechanics inflated its cost is directly relevant to anyone trying to work out why their injectable costs what it costs. Meanwhile the earnings backdrop tightens the incentive: net income attributable to CVS Health fell to $1.77 billion in 2025 from $4.61 billion in 2024 and $8.34 billion in 2023.
So use it for what it is genuinely good at. For an injectable medicine, the ability to walk into one of nine thousand stores and show a real pharmacist the actual pen — when the dose looks wrong, when it got warm in the car, when you cannot work the dial — is worth more than most people appreciate, and no telehealth-only provider can offer it. On the shop side, which is the only part this affiliate link touches, there is exactly one thing we would actively recommend: proper sharps disposal. Searching cvs.com surfaces the CVS Complete Needle Collection & Disposal System and the Sharps Compliance TakeAway Medication Recovery System, which are the correct answer to a question we recently told readers not to solve on an unregulated marketplace. Note that pen needles themselves are a pharmacy-counter item — searching the front-of-store for "pen needles" returns rollerball pens and sewing needles — so ask at the counter. And note the one thing this filing does not contain: across an annual report covering the year of the formulative decision, the words Wegovy, Zepbound, semaglutide and tirzepatide appear precisely zero times.
The practical posture is neither outrage nor trust. Call your plan in the fortnight before 1 October and ask three specific questions: is my formulary the standard commercial template, will Zepbound be preferred on it, and will prior authorisation be required afresh. Then ask your prescriber whether switching back is actually right for you, because sixteen months on a different molecule is real clinical history. Keep your denial letters, use the appeal route rather than assuming a no is final, and ask your pharmacist to compare your insured price against the manufacturers' cash-pay channels, because they can see both and the answer is sometimes surprising. Our disclosure, plainly: this programme pays 3% of order value on cvs.com/shop on NET 90 terms. We earn nothing at all on your prescription — the part of this company that matters most to you is the part we cannot be paid for — and about thirty cents on a ten-dollar sharps container, four months from now.
Visit CVSFrequently Asked Questions
What is the most useful thing to know right now?
That Zepbound becomes a preferred option again on 1 October 2026, which is 54 days after the date of this review, and that Lilly's oral GLP-1 Foundayo came off the new-to-market block on 1 June 2026. CVS Caremark announced both on 28 May 2026. If you are one of the people who was moved off Zepbound in mid-2025 because your plan used Caremark's standard commercial template, that is the date your original medication becomes available on formulary again — assuming your specific plan adopts the template, which is the caveat that matters and which only your plan documents or a call to your benefits administrator can settle. Press reporting says Wegovy, both injectable and oral, keeps preferred status alongside it, so people currently established on semaglutide should not be pushed to switch; we note that CVS's own release does not spell out continuity protections in those terms, so treat that detail as reporting rather than as a company commitment. Practical advice: do not stop or change anything on the strength of a review. Ring your plan a week or two before 1 October, ask specifically whether your formulary is the standard commercial template and whether Zepbound will be preferred on it, ask whether prior authorisation will be required afresh, and ask what your copay will be. Then talk to your prescriber about whether switching back is actually the right clinical call, because sixteen months on a different molecule is a real clinical history, not a filing error to be reversed.
What happened in July 2025?
A pharmacy benefit manager changed which obesity drug tens of millions of Americans could get, and it was not a clinical decision made with their doctors. Effective 1 July 2025, CVS Caremark placed Novo Nordisk's Wegovy — semaglutide 2.4mg — on its largest commercial template formularies as the preferred GLP-1 for patients with obesity, and stopped covering Eli Lilly's Zepbound. Reporting at the time put the affected template at roughly 25 to 30 million people. CVS's stated rationale was competitive: that excluding one product forces manufacturers to compete on price and would push both companies to lower US prices. You can hold two views of that at once. As market design it is defensible and it is what a PBM is hired to do — the filing describes exactly this mechanism, saying clients can lower plan costs "by setting different member payment levels for different products on their drug lists or 'formularies,' which helps guide members to choose lower cost alternatives through appropriate financial incentives". As patient experience it meant people stable on tirzepatide were told to switch molecules, or pay cash, or fight for an exception, for reasons that had nothing to do with how they were responding. Some state authorities took an interest; Massachusetts published a notice about the removal. Then on 28 May 2026, CVS Caremark reversed it. The president of CVS Caremark, Ed DeVaney, framed the reversal this way: "We're creating access and options that would not have existed without our leadership in the market." We will let readers weigh that sentence against the sequence.
Why does CVS's structure matter to me specifically?
Because one company occupies three positions in your prescription, and they are not naturally aligned. From the FY2025 10-K, as of 31 December 2025: approximately 9,000 retail locations; more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics; a pharmacy benefit manager, CVS Caremark, with approximately 87 million plan members; and an insurance business, Aetna, serving an estimated more than 37 million people. Caremark also maintains a national network of about 63,000 retail pharmacies, roughly 34,500 chain — which includes CVS's own — and about 28,500 independent. So the entity that decides whether your GLP-1 is on formulary, the entity that gets paid to dispense it, and in many cases the entity insuring you, share a parent. That is legal, it is the industry's normal structure, and integration genuinely can lower costs. It also means that when your prior authorisation is denied, the company denying it is the company whose pharmacy would have filled it. None of that tells you the decision was wrong. It tells you why you should read your denial letters carefully, ask which entity made the decision, and use the appeal route rather than assuming the answer is final. And it is worth knowing that the FY2025 filing does not mention Wegovy, Zepbound, semaglutide or tirzepatide by name even once, despite the year including the formulary decision that reshaped access to those exact drugs.
What is the FTC insulin case?
An allegation, still unresolved, that the company's PBM arm inflated the price of injectable metabolic medicine — which is close enough to this site's subject to matter. We are quoting the 10-K rather than a news summary. "In September 2024, the FTC filed an administrative complaint against the three largest PBMs (the 'PBM Group') and their affiliated group purchasing organizations, including subsidiaries of the Company. The complaint alleged that the PBM Group and their affiliated group purchasing organizations engaged in anti-competitive and unfair practices that 'artificially' increased insulin costs. The Company is defending itself against the complaint, while simultaneously attempting to reach a negotiated resolution with the FTC. In November 2024, the PBM Group filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri challenging the constitutionality of the FTC's administrative complaint. After the district court denied the challenge, the PBM Group filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which is still pending." Note what that is and is not. It is an allegation by a federal regulator, not a finding, and CVS is contesting it — including on constitutional grounds, which is a serious defence rather than a delaying tactic. But the substance is the rebate-and-list-price mechanics that determine what a patient pays at the counter for an injectable, and insulin is the closest analogue to a GLP-1 there is. Whatever the outcome, it is a reason to be sceptical of the idea that formulary decisions are driven purely by clinical evidence.
Is CVS a good place to get my GLP-1 filled?
For many people, yes, and the reason is unglamorous: a pharmacist you can stand in front of. Roughly 9,000 locations means that when a pen looks wrong, when the dose in the box does not match the dose on your script, when you need someone to show you how to prime it, or when the refrigerator in your car got hot on the way home, there is a licensed professional within a short drive who can look at the actual object. Telehealth-only providers cannot do that, and it is the single biggest practical advantage of a bricks-and-mortar pharmacy for an injectable medicine. More than 800 MinuteClinic locations add a route to a clinician for the things that come up alongside treatment. The counterweight is the pricing and coverage machinery described above, and one number from the filing worth sitting with: pharmacy same store sales rose 18.0% in 2025, which the company attributes primarily to "pharmacy drug mix, including branded GLP-1 drugs". These medicines are a substantial commercial event for this company. That does not make the pharmacy service worse. It does mean you should compare what CVS charges you against the manufacturers' own cash-pay channels — which have brought branded prices down sharply — rather than assuming your pharmacy is the cheapest route by default. Ask your pharmacist directly what the cash price is versus your insured price; they can see both, and sometimes the answer is surprising.
What should I actually buy through this link?
Sharps disposal, and probably nothing else. This is worth being concrete about because the affiliate programme covers cvs.com/shop — the front of store — rather than the pharmacy, so the honest question is what a GLP-1 patient genuinely needs from the shop side. The answer is the thing we told readers not to buy from an unregulated marketplace in a recent review: a proper sharps container. Searching cvs.com surfaces the CVS Complete Needle Collection & Disposal System and the Sharps Compliance TakeAway Medication Recovery System, a mail-back programme. Those are the correct products for household injection waste, they come from a licensed pharmacy chain, and unlike a $0.99 tattoo-studio waste bin they are designed for a disposal route that actually accepts them. Ask in store as well, because many CVS locations also host medication disposal, and your health plan may supply a container free. One thing you will not find easily in the front-of-store search is pen needles: searching "pen needles" on cvs.com returns mostly rollerball pens and sewing needles, because injection pen needles are a pharmacy-counter item and in some states need a prescription. Ask at the counter rather than hunting the aisles. Beyond that, the front of store is a drugstore: it sells shampoo perfectly well and has nothing else to do with your treatment.
How does CVS's own money situation affect me?
It is context for why formularies tighten, and it is in the filing. Total revenues rose $29.3 billion, or 7.8%, in 2025. But net income attributable to CVS Health fell to $1,768 million from $4,614 million in 2024 and $8,344 million in 2023 — down roughly 62% year on year and down about 79% over two years. Operating expenses rose partly because of approximately $1.2 billion of legacy litigation charges tied to two court decisions about past business practices, plus a $320 million opioid litigation charge. Aetna exited the states where it sold on the ACA public exchanges effective January 2026. None of that is a scandal; large integrated healthcare companies have volatile earnings and enormous legal tails. It matters to you for one reason: a company under margin pressure has stronger incentives to manage drug spend aggressively, and GLP-1s are the largest new drug-spend category in a generation. When you read that a weight-management programme "optimizes utilization" of GLP-1 medication, the financial backdrop is part of what that phrase is doing. So the practical posture is neither outrage nor trust: keep your own records, expect prior authorisation, know your appeal rights, and check the manufacturer cash-pay price as a benchmark so you can tell whether your coverage is actually saving you money.
What is your bottom line?
Use CVS for what a big licensed pharmacy is good at, and treat its benefit-management arm as a counterparty rather than an ally. Score 3.4 out of 5. The pharmacy network is genuinely valuable for an injectable medicine — a professional you can show the pen to is worth more than most people realise — and the front of store carries the correct sharps disposal products, which is the one thing we would actively recommend buying here. The company is transparent in the way public companies are forced to be: the FTC insulin complaint, the litigation charges, the earnings decline and the utilization language are all in the annual report, which is more than most sellers we review offer. And the direction of travel on GLP-1 access has improved: Foundayo unblocked on 1 June 2026, Zepbound preferred again from 1 October 2026, both Wegovy presentations retained. But the same organisation removed Zepbound coverage fifteen months earlier from a formulary template covering, by press estimates, 25 to 30 million people, and the filing that describes that year does not name a single one of these drugs. So: fill your prescription wherever the price and the pharmacist are best, buy the sharps container, read your denial letters, appeal, and benchmark against the manufacturers' cash prices. Our disclosure: this programme pays 3% of order value on cvs.com/shop with NET 90 payment terms. We earn nothing on your prescription, and about 30 cents on a $10 sharps container, four months from now.
Put 1 October In Your Calendar.
Then ring your plan and ask three questions: is my formulary the standard commercial template, will Zepbound be preferred, and will prior authorisation restart? Buy the sharps container while you are there.
Visit CVSCompare Other GLP-1 Providers
See how other telehealth providers stack up.
Mochi Health
Obesity Medicine SpecialistsBoard-certified obesity medicine specialists with both brand-name and compounded GLP-1 options
Read Review →LifeMD
Top RatedPublicly traded telehealth company with comprehensive health platform and competitive pricing
Read Review →Amazon One Medical
Brand-Name, No CompoundingFDA-approved Wegovy, Zepbound and Foundayo from $149/month cash, $25 with insurance and $50/month for eligible Medicare members — the first mainstream route to approved medication at prices that compete with compounded. We earn no commission from it
Read Review →GoodRx Care
Trusted BrandTelehealth platform from GoodRx with transparent pricing and established trust
Read Review →BeyondMD
Top RatedBoard-certified physician-led care with comprehensive medical oversight
Read Review →Form Health
Comprehensive ProgramMultidisciplinary obesity medicine program with physicians, dietitians, and behavioral coaching
Read Review →Medical Disclaimer: This page is informational and is not medical advice, and it is not benefits, insurance, legal or financial advice. Formulary coverage varies by plan, by employer, by state and by plan year; the dates described here relate to CVS Caremark template formularies and may not apply to your specific plan. Verify your own coverage with your plan administrator or insurer before making any decision, and obtain a determination in writing where possible. Do not start, stop, switch or change the dose of any prescription medication on the basis of this or any other review; changing between GLP-1 receptor agonists is a clinical decision that involves different molecules, different titration schedules and different side-effect profiles, and must be made with your prescriber. GLP-1 receptor agonists are prescription medicines that are not suitable for everyone, including people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, and are not recommended in pregnancy; common adverse effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, and serious adverse effects including pancreatitis and gallbladder disease have been reported. Obtain prescription medicines and injection supplies only from a licensed pharmacy. Dispose of used needles only in a container accepted by your local disposal route. The description of the FTC's administrative complaint concerns allegations that have not been adjudicated, and CVS Health is contesting them. Consult a licensed clinician before starting or changing any treatment.
Date reviewed: 8 August 2026. Company figures and quotations are from CVS Health Corporation's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025, filed with the SEC on 10 February 2026 (CIK 0000064803), which states that as of 31 December 2025 the company 'had approximately 9,000 retail locations, more than 1,000 walk-in and primary care medical clinics and a leading pharmacy benefits manager with approximately 87 million plan members and expanding specialty pharmacy solutions' and serves 'an estimated more than 37 million people' through health insurance products; that the Health Care Benefits segment operates through Aetna 'serving an estimated more than 37 million people as of December 31, 2025'; that 'The Company exited the states in which Aetna operated on the Public Exchanges effective January 2026'; that the company 'operated more than 800 MinuteClinic locations in the U.S.'; and that Caremark 'maintains a national network of approximately 63,000 retail pharmacies, consisting of approximately 34,500 chain pharmacies (which include CVS pharmacy locations) and approximately 28,500 independent pharmacies'. The filing states that 'The CVS Weight Management TM program optimizes utilization of GLP-1 medication and provides the label-recommended lifestyle support and coaching to maximize and maintain weight loss on these therapies, while addressing new indications (e.g., cardiovascular disease)'; that clients have the option 'through plan design, to further lower their pharmacy benefit plan costs by setting different member payment levels for different products on their drug lists or "formularies," which helps guide members to choose lower cost alternatives through appropriate financial incentives'; and that formulary selections are reviewed by 'an independent panel of doctors, pharmacists and other medical experts, referred to as the CVS Caremark National Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee'. On results, the filing states that 'Pharmacy same store sales increased 18.0% in 2025 compared to 2024. The increase was primarily driven by pharmacy drug mix, including branded GLP-1 drugs, and the 8.0% increase in pharmacy same store prescription volume on a 30-day equivalent basis'; that 'Front store same store sales increased 1.2% in 2025 compared to 2024'; that total revenues increased $29.3 billion, or 7.8%, in 2025; that net income attributable to CVS Health was $1,768 million in 2025 compared with $4,614 million in 2024 and $8,344 million in 2023; and that operating expenses rose partly due to 'approximately $1.2 billion of legacy litigation charges related to two court decisions associated with the Company's past business practices' and 'a $320 million opioid litigation charge'. The FTC matter is quoted verbatim from the same filing: 'In September 2024, the FTC filed an administrative complaint against the three largest PBMs (the "PBM Group") and their affiliated group purchasing organizations, including subsidiaries of the Company. The complaint alleged that the PBM Group and their affiliated group purchasing organizations engaged in anti-competitive and unfair practices that "artificially" increased insulin costs. The Company is defending itself against the complaint, while simultaneously attempting to reach a negotiated resolution with the FTC. In November 2024, the PBM Group filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri challenging the constitutionality of the FTC's administrative complaint. After the district court denied the challenge, the PBM Group filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which is still pending.' A case-insensitive search of the full filing text found zero occurrences of 'Wegovy', 'Zepbound', 'semaglutide' and 'tirzepatide'. Formulary dates are from CVS Health's own company news release dated 28 May 2026, 'CVS Caremark delivers affordability and access to GLP-1 weight management medications with expanded coverage options', which gives 1 June 2026 for removal of the new-to-market block on Foundayo (orforglipron) and 1 October 2026 for the reintroduction of Zepbound (tirzepatide) as a preferred option, and quotes Ed DeVaney, President of CVS Caremark: 'We're creating access and options that would not have existed without our leadership in the market.' That release does not state the number of members or plans affected and does not give pricing figures; the estimate of roughly 25 to 30 million people covered by the affected standard commercial formulary template, the retention of preferred status for both injectable and oral Wegovy, and the description of continuity protections for members currently maintained on semaglutide are from press reporting rather than from the company's release, and are attributed as such. The 1 July 2025 change — placing Wegovy 2.4 mg as the preferred GLP-1 for obesity on Caremark's largest commercial template formularies and ceasing coverage of Zepbound — and CVS's contemporaneous rationale that exclusion forces manufacturers to compete on price are likewise from press reporting and from a public notice published by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Product observations were made by searching cvs.com on 8 August 2026, which surfaced the 'Sharps Compliance TakeAway Medication Recovery System' and the 'CVS Complete Needle Collection & Disposal System'; a search for 'pen needles' returned predominantly writing instruments and sewing needles, consistent with injection pen needles being a pharmacy-counter item. We did not purchase any product, did not verify individual state pharmacy licences, and have no access to any reader's plan documents. Katalys offer #1557 lists 3.00% default commission with NET 90 payment terms and covers cvs.com/shop.
Affiliate Disclosure: This site may receive compensation from affiliate partners. This programme pays 3% of order value on purchases at cvs.com/shop, on NET 90 payment terms, and pays nothing on prescription dispensing. This does not influence our editorial content or review ratings.