Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina recently revealed the firm has no backup plan should its lengthy proposed merger with Rite Aid fall through.

Pessina told analysts he doesn’t even want to imagine the merger won’t be approved, especially after the companies agreed to sell 865 Rite Aide locations to Fred’s Inc. — a department store and pharmacy chain — to help smooth the deal, the Wall Street Journal reports. But the FTC still isn’t convinced that the deal would be best, especially since the combined entity resulting from a Walgreens-Rite Aide merger would create the largest retail pharmacy chain in the U.S. and total more than 13,000 stores.

The FTC is still in the process of requesting information on the deal, and the two companies are hopeful they can close the merger sometime in early 2017. [WSJ]

Hear from Walgreens director of real estate Robin Kosiek at Bisnow's national healthcare event March 7.