CVS Health has been awarded the American Lung Association’s (ALA) Outstanding Corporate Partner of the Year award in recognition of the company’s support over the past five years to advance the ALA’s efforts to defeat lung cancer.

"Five years ago the American Lung Association launched LUNG FORCE because lung cancer was not on women's health radar, and we wanted the public to understand that lung cancer is actually the number one cancer killer among women," said ALA National President and CEO Harold Wimmer.

"CVS Health was the first organization to sign on to this initiative and has served as our National Presenting Sponsor ever since. Thanks to this continuous support from CVS Health, we’ve made undeniable progress toward defeating lung cancer, including our work in communities to prevent tobacco use and reduce smoking rates to their lowest level in our nation's history.”

Over the course of the past five years, the partnership with CVS Health has supported an increase in the ALA's annual investment in lung cancer research by over 200 percent – totaling a commitment of over $12.5 million since 2014.

In 2016, CVS Health launched Be the First, a five-year, $50 million initiative to help create the first generation of Americans to be tobacco free, following its decision to remove all tobacco products from their store shelves. Be the First supports comprehensive anti-smoking education, tobacco control advocacy and healthy behavior programming in partnership with the ALA and other organizations. The initiative has contributed to a decline in youth smoking rates and reached more than 9 million young people.  

"As the national presenting sponsor of LUNG FORCE, CVS Health is proud to work toward our shared vision of a smoke-free America, starting with this next generation of youth," said Eileen Howard Boone, Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility & Philanthropy at CVS Health. "Lung cancer is deeply personal to CVS Health's purpose of helping people on their path to better health. With this award, we're honored to be recognized as leaders who are helping to positively impact this public health challenge and build healthier, smokefree communities across the country.”

CVS Health has also supported the ALA’s delivery of lifesaving work through nationwide local employee engagement, grants supporting individuals who want to quit smoking, and more.

The Lung Association will partner with CVS Health once again this year to invite CVS Pharmacy customers to donate a dollar or more to LUNG FORCE from May 5 – 25, 2019, at store locations nationwide. For more information about the campaign, visit Lung.org/CVS.