Walgreens acquiring central Illinois pharmacy chain

Deerfield-based Walgreen Co. announced an agreement to acquire all of the assets of 10 Carle RxExpress pharmacies in east central Illinois from The Carle Foundation, an Urbana-based not-for-profit parent company of an integrated network of health care services.

Walgreens plans to continue operating six of the acquired pharmacies. Three other locations will close and prescription files and inventory will be transferred to nearby Walgreens pharmacies.

The remaining location will be consolidated with one of the six pharmacies that will continue to operate.

“We are working with Carle to make this transition as seamless as possible," said Scott Haynes, Walgreens market vice president for central Illinois.

Walgreens has committed to hire a majority of the current Carle RxExpress employees. Completion of the transaction is subject to certain conditions and is expected to close by July. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.