Wal-Mart, Target and Publix lowering prescription drug prices in a huge way

Some pretty significant retail news has been dropped in the last few weeks, as Wal-Mart -- the world's biggest retailer -- said that it would lower generic prescription drug prices on 300 or more of the most widely-prescribed drugs by up to 40% starting, well, last week.

Initially, Wal-Mart was going to launch this ambitious new program at the start of 2007 and only in the Tampa, Florida market, but has since revised its strategy to include the entire state of Florida and an immediate launch as of last Friday -- a week ago today.

Soon after Wal-Mart announced this new price program, fellow retailer Target announced it would be doing the same thing, and then yesterday grocery chain Publix said that it too would follow suit and lower generic prescription drug prices by almost the same amount. It remains to be seen if specialty drug and supplement retailers like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid will follow suit. If they don't Wal-Mart may be biting into their business.