Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth plans to leverage the company's stature as a retail pharmacy to develop its healthcare business, he said in a recent interview with CNBC.
"If you look at the stores and what goes on … 8 million vaccines this year at the back of the store already, that's a healthcare business, right?" he said. "That's not just putting pills in bottles, that's people touching people — 85,000 of our people touching people every day," Mr. Wentworth told CNBC reporter Jim Cramer.
Mr. Wentworth took over as CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance in October.
"WBA has a differentiated model with the power to build on the company’s pharmacy strength and trusted brand to evolve healthcare delivery," he said in a news release. "I fully recognize the challenges that health plans, healthcare providers, pharmacies and retailers are confronting today and am confident that WBA, and its customer- and patient-focused teams, can seize the opportunities of a dynamic marketplace and be the partner of choice."
Mr. Wentworth also told CNBC the trust customers have in the Walgreens brand is a "leverageable asset" it can use to build its health services business.