US Pharmacy chain CVS is to stop selling tobacco products.

The popular drugstore chain - which also sells certain grocery products - will no longer sell any cigarettes or rolling tobacco at its 7,600 stores.

CVS executives have acknowledged that the move could cost it billions of dollars as cigarettes draw so many customers into their drugstores.

But the company says it hopes to strike deals with hospitals and health insurers as a full-fledged health care provider.