The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the U.S. retail pharmacy industry: A case of CVS Health

Abstract

Since the new coronavirus swept through the United States in 2020, a wide range of industries have been hit to varying degrees. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a number of implications for the retail pharmacy sector: Politically, the enactment of the stay-at-home Orders and the COVID-19 related acts have reduced the foot traffic in pharmacies; Economically, the pandemic led to a major business shutdown, causing unemployment to peak and GDP to fall into negative growth, which led to a reduction in commercial membership in the health insurance business and an increase in Medicaid numbers for government programs; Socially, the epidemic has made people more aware of insurance and has changed consumption patterns and care patterns; Technologically, telemedicine became the main form of care during the pandemic, with pharmacies such as CVS Health increasing their investment in this area. This paper analyzed the financial indicators of CVS Health and found that the company’s profits generally showed an increasing trend during the pandemic period and were not significantly negatively impacted. By analyzing the strategy of CVS Health, this paper suggested that other pharmacies should be sustainable in the post-pandemic era through efforts to actively transform and diversify their businesses, increase investment in telemedicine and actively develop ESG strategies.