Content about Illinois

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Ulta Beauty is helping beauty mavens ring in the New Year with resolutions designed to create healthy skin all year long.

Ulta Beauty's Top Five 2013 Skin Resolutions, combined with its Love Your Skin events across the country, are designed to make sticking to a new skin care regimen easier than ever. Ulta Beauty's annual Love Your Skin events take place through Jan. 19. Stores nationwide will focus on top skin care techniques by offering advice, live demos and tips from in-store experts, as well special daily offers.

PALATINE, Ill. — In support of its December launch of the pseudoehedrine product Nexafed, Acura Pharmaceuticals recently kicked off a national e-mail campaign to help drive pharmacists to the Nexafed website with content specifically designed for the pharmacist audience, including infographics, graphic representations of study data and a behind-the-scenes look at Nexafed's abuse-deterrent technology.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Infusion Services has been selected as a contracted provider of a new injectable medication that helps patients with short bowel syndrome get more — or all — of their nutrients orally, reducing their dependence on intravenous parenteral nutrition, the division announced Wednesday.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Thursday announced $100,000 in additional donations to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. The company, which includes Duane Reade in New York and New Jersey, is making two $50,000 contributions, one to the Empire State Relief Fund announced by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and the other to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund established by Gov. Chris Christie.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens will keep stores open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to allow last-minute Christmas shopping, the retail pharmacy chain said Wednesday.

This includes 1,600 24-hour locations that will be open around the clock, while most Walgreens stores will stay open until midnight through Dec. 23, and nearly all stores will be open during regular hours on Christmas Eve, including pharmacies, which will be open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. On Christmas, non-24-hour stores will be open from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., and pharmacies will be open at 24-hour stores.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — The Food and Drug Administration has accepted a regulatory approval application from Takeda and Lundbeck for an experimental drug to treat depression, the companies said Wednesday.

The FDA will review the companies' application for vortioxetine for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adults. The agency expects to finish reviewing the application by Oct. 2, 2013.

ITASCA, Ill. — Fans of "Zombieland" take heart — should the world come to an end, the last Twinkie will be available at a Chicago-area Jewel Osco. 

Jewel-Osco, a Supervalu company, on Monday announced that beginning Tuesday morning the retailer will begin selling what are believed to be the last shipments of Hostess products. More than 20,000 boxes of Twinkies will be sold at regular price through select Chicago-area Jewel-Osco stores, the company stated. "Customers looking for Ding Dongs, Zingers and Orange Cupcakes will also be in luck."

MUNDELEIN, Ill. — Following last week's news that the influenza season has gotten off to an early start, Medline issued a release recommending the company's BioMask facemask as adequate protection against contracting the flu.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation on Friday announced they have completed a transaction giving Walgreens a significant ownership stake in Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Pharmacy, the parent company of Cystic Fibrosis Services.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Wednesday morning reported November sales of $5.9 billion, a decrease of 3.9% versus the same period last year. Total front-end sales decreased 0.3% compared with the same month in fiscal 2012, while comparable store front-end sales were down 1.7%. Customer traffic in comparable stores was down 4.9% while basket size increased 3.2%.

However, registrations for Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty program, which launched in September, totaled more than 38 million through November, denoting a strong start for the program. 

BOLINGBROOK, Ill. — Ulta Beauty posted a double-digit gain in third-quarter sales and net income and bolstered market share across all of its major product categories, the beauty retailer announced on Thursday.

For the quarter ended Oct. 27, net sales rose 22.4% to $505.6 million from $413.1 million in the year-ago period. Same-store sales rose 8.4%.

Net income rose 42.5% to $38.2 million for the quarter. Income per diluted share rose 40.5% to 59 cents per share compared with 42 cents per share in the year-ago period.