CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation is an American multinational healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company is the world's second largest healthcare company, behind UnitedHealth Group. In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000. CVS started in Lowell, Massachusetts by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and their partner Ralph Hoagland. The name stood for Consumer Value Stores.

The first Consumer Value Store (CVS), selling health and beauty products, was founded in 1963, in Lowell, Massachusetts, by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and Ralph Hoagland. By 1964, CVS had 17 stores that sold primarily beauty products. In 1967, CVS opened its first stores with pharmacy departments in Warwick, Rhode Island, and Cumberland, Rhode Island. CVS was sold to Melville Corporation in 1969.

By 1970, CVS was operating 100 stores in New England and the Northeast. In 1972, CVS acquired 84 Clinton Drug and Discount Stores. This purchase introduced CVS to the Midwest with stores in Indiana. During 1977, CVS acquired 36 New Jersey–based Mack Drug stores.

In 1983, CVS began providing home health care for hemophilia. The company acquired Heartland Drug in 1988, a small pharmacy company in the Boston area giving it stores in the Boston metro including Watertown Square and Harvard Square.

CVS acquired 500 Peoples Drug stores in 1990, establishing the company in new mid-Atlantic markets including Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. In 1994, it launched PharmaCare, a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company. CVS became a standalone company trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the "CVS" ticker in 1996. Stanley Goldstein was the company's first chairman. CVS acquired over 2,500 Revco drug stores, establishing the company in additional Midwestern, Southeastern and Eastern states in 1997.

In 1998, the company acquired 207 stores from Arbor Drugs, giving CVS its first stores in Michigan. A year later, CVS acquired Soma.com, the first online pharmacy, and renamed it CVS.com to become the first fully integrated online and brick-and-mortar pharmacy offering to consumers.^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, CVS acquired Stadtlander pharmacy from Bergen Brunswig Corporation, making CVS ProCare the largest specialty pharmacy in the U.S. at the time. In 2001, CVS launched the ExtraCare loyalty card program. Within a year, 30 million customers enrolled to earn rewards and receive discounts. CVS purchased 1,268 Eckerd drug stores and Eckerd Health Services, Eckerd's PBM/Mail-order pharmacy business, from JCPenney in 2004. The purchase expanded the company's footprint in Texas, Florida and other southern states.

2006 saw CVS acquiring 700 freestanding drug store operations of supermarket chain Albertsons, including stores trading under the Osco Drug and Sav-On Drugs banners. That same year, it acquired Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic. CVS Corporation and Caremark Rx, Inc. completed their transformative merger in 2007, creating CVS Caremark, an integrated pharmacy services provider, and the corporate headquarters remained in Woonsocket, RI. Tom Ryan, the chairman and CEO of CVS remained president and CEO of CVS Caremark Corporation, while Caremark's Edwin Crawford became the chairman of the board. CVS Caremark acquired 541 stores from Longs Drugs Stores Corp in California, Hawaii, and Nevada in 2008.