As a mark of its protest against Delaware's plan of cutting reimbursements for drugs, Walgreen - the biggest pharmacy chain in the state - announced on Thursday that July onwards it would stop filling Medicaid prescriptions for the state.

Walgreen said that with effect from July 6, the company will no longer fill Medicaid prescriptions in all 66 of its Happy Harry's stores - purchased by the drugstore chain in
2006 - that serve the residents in Delaware. The move counteracts the April decision by state officials, pertaining to a roll back of the reimbursement rate for branded prescriptions to 84 percent of average wholesale price from the current 86 percent of average wholesale price.

Commenting on the Walgreen turning its back on Delaware's 157,000 residents on Medicare, Rita Landgraf, the state's Cabinet Secretary for the department of health and social services, said that the government decision to slash reimbursement were planned to make up some part of its $800 million budget.

Meanwhile, Kermit Crawford, Walgreen's Senior VP of Pharmacy, said that the company - along with the National Association of Chain Drug Stores - had suggested alternatives to the state for filling its Medicaid budget gap. Regarding the Walgreen decision to withdraw, Crawford said: "Quite simply, we can't continue to participate in a program that, in some cases, pays us less than our cost to fill these prescriptions."