FTC orders Rite Aid to divest pharmacies

Rite Aid must sell 23 of the Brooks and Eckerd pharmacies it plans to acquire from the Jean Coutu Group, the Federal Trade Commission announces June 4. Rite Aid announced in August 2006 an agreement to purchase 338 Brooks and 1,516 Eckerd stores, making Rite Aid the third largest chain drug store (1"The Pink Sheet" Aug. 28, 2006, p. 20). "The consent order with the Commission requires the companies to sell pharmacies in all of the markets where competition would be adversely affected by the proposed transaction," Jeffrey Schmidt, director of FTC's Bureau of Competition says in a written release. Commission-approved sales include those to Kinney Drugs, Medicine Shoppe, Walgreen, Big Y, and Weis Markets...