Action sought against CVS over outdated items

Philadelphia City Council members and community groups yesterday urged the city's Law Department to take action against the drugstore chain CVS for repeatedly selling expired products.

The City Hall news conference was held to encourage City Solicitor Shelley Smith to pursue legal actions like those taken against CVS by New York and California. Smith did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The State of New York sued CVS in December over the chain's sale of expired products, and California Attorney General Jerry Brown called on the chain in June to fix the problem after finding expired items at 26 Southern California stores last year. California is suing the drugstore.

Philadelphia Community Affairs Director Lance Haver said the state attorney general had not responded to requests during the last few months from several Council members on the CVS issue, prompting the news conference seeking help from the city.

"CVS should spend the money it needs to clear the shelves of expired products that are putting our children at risk," Haver said.

Council members said they were willing to take legislative action, including fines for the sale of expired medicine.

"CVS has been caught selling expired products in our city and around the country," Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez said at the news conference. "It is outrageous that we are here today calling on a corporate citizen to remove dangerous products from the shelves."

A table at the news conference displayed 36 expired items bought at 15 CVS drugstores in Philadelphia from late January to early March. The products included over-the-counter medications, infant formula, and dairy products.

Allergy tablets had expired more than a year before purchase, and an infant gas-relief medicine was close to two years outdated.

CVS said in a statement yesterday that the health and safety of customers were its top priority.

"We have a clear product-removal policy in place at all of our stores to help ensure that items are removed from our shelves before they reach their expiration date," the statement said. "While no process this labor intensive is immune from error - a typical CVS pharmacy has 100,000 items on its shelves - we strive to achieve 100 percent compliance and move quickly to rectify any unintentional deviation from our policies and procedures."

Councilman Bill Greenlee said legal action was needed to protect the community.

"It is particularly disturbing that CVS knows about this problem. It has been documented, and they are taking little or no steps to rectify the situation," Greenlee said.

Karen Bojar, the National Organization for Women's Philadelphia chapter president, said CVS spent millions of dollars to create the image that it supported women.

"They use the slogan, "All the ways we care," but they don't want to take responsibility for their action," Bojar said. "If CVS wants our trust, the company needs to worry less about image making and more about taking expired products off the shelves."