Drugstore.com's 4th quarter sales nearly double over year ago

Drugstore.com will report unaudited net sales of at least $35 million for the company's fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, 2000-90% above net sales in the same period in 1999. Fourth quarter 2000 sales surpassed all sales for fiscal year 1999. The company said the announcement by Peter Neupert, chairman and CEO of drugstore.com, will come later today in a presentation at the Morgan Stanley conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Neupert also reported preliminary, unaudited gross margin of more than 13% for the company's fourth quarter versus a negative 16.3% for the same period in 1999. In addition, drugstore.com added 257,000 customers in the fourth quarter of 2000.