Walgreens Boots Alliance said its alliance with Chicago-based VillageMD to open up to 700 full-service doctor offices in more than 30 U.S. markets has expanded.
The Chicago retailer (Nasdaq: WBA) announced the partnership with VillageMD in July, when it said it would invest $1 billion in VillageMD over the next three years. Walgreens will then own about 30% of the Chicago startup.
The alliance opened its first five clinics in Houston, and on Wednesday it was announced that the next 40 new Village Medical at Walgreens clinics will open in Houston, El Paso and Austin in Texas; Phoenix; and Orlando, Florida by the end of summer 2021. The Phoenix location is set to open on Dec. 14.
“Walgreens is proud to partner with VillageMD to offer the most comprehensive and large-scale roll out of physician-led primary care services co-located in a retail pharmacy setting. Our role as part of patient care teams has never been more critical, and our partnership with VillageMD enables us to provide more people with convenient access to high-quality, affordable care embedded in their communities," said Alex Gourlay co-chief operating officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, in a statement.
Walgreens said the expansion plans were driven by the success of the Houston clinics, where they were greeted with "overwhelmingly positive feedback and high satisfaction from both patients and physicians," according to the company.
Many of the Walgreens-VillageMD clinics are located in medically underserved areas, according to the companies. Eventually, all of the offices will be staffed by more than 3,600 primary care providers, who will be recruited by VillageMD.
