JOB MARKET IS SATURATED IN NON-TRADITIONAL AREAS TOO

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DOOM N GLOOM

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Managed care, pharma etc. has consistently been referenced as a “safe haven” for pharmacists in terms of overall job stability/growth/opportunities. More and more retail and hospital pharmacists are looking to avoid piss-poor work conditions, getting laid off, relocating to BFE etc. and are now desperately trying to get into these nontraditional areas, as are students that are currently in school who are trying to avoid what their predecessors (c/o 2016-2018) are experiencing in the growing unemployment market.

Well I am here to tell you that it is SATURATED in the nontraditional realm as well. Increasing healthcare costs put additional budgetary strains on PBMs and innovation in industry is evolving towards a bimodal boom-or-bust approach from an R&D perspective (just compare the number of pipeline drugs in hyper-orphan disease states versus “traditional” drugs in development in the last 3 years), leading to constant turnover and reshuffling of the deck as companies are constantly merging, getting acquired, etc. Point being, it is hard to hold a stable job nowadays even in the nontraditional realm, and the number of contract/temp workers similar to per diem workers in retail/hospital has also blossomed in recent years.

That being said, while the academic buzz words in the clinical pharmacy realm are “provider status”, “MTM”, “clinical care” etc, the academic buzz words in the nontraditional realm are “formulary management”, “HE&OR”, “value-based whatever” etc. but the jobs even in this realm are not there. I know several folks who did fellowship programs to try and get into HE&OR or market access etc., only to find themselves unemployed for several months after fellowship and/or taking roles irrelevant to their training (such as a sales rep role— not even an MSL).

Desperate fellows are now preying on equally desperate students by starting these “interview prep” services (seriously, just check out pharmaleap), and saturation in industry has spurred the growth of completely BS fellowships on the same scale of PGY3 residencies (seriously, there are MTM fellowships now... what?). But what’s worse about these phony fellowships is that they are completely unaccredited and are held to ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY (unlike ASHP-accredited residencies which must fulfill some minimum standards at least), making it a prime business opportunity for companies trying to cut down on labor costs.

Doom and gloom is permeating this field, folks. The grass ain’t greener on the other side.

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Are you a student, recent graduate, previous fellow or...? Curious to know the perspective that you post this.
 
Are you a student, recent graduate, previous fellow or...? Curious to know the perspective that you post this.
Without getting too specific I graduated in the last 7 years, completed a non-traditional post-grad training opportunity and currently work in the non-traditional realm. It’s broad but this field is very narrow so I can’t go any more specific than that, sorry.
 
Without getting too specific I graduated in the last 7 years, completed a non-traditional post-grad training opportunity and currently work in the non-traditional realm. It’s broad but this field is very narrow so I can’t go any more specific than that, sorry.
I see.

It does seem like the number of fellowships, particularly ones unaffiliated with universities, has grown. I've seen several large healthcare advertising and medical writing agencies post up fellowship opportunities. This seems to be partly supply-driven, partly a democratization of information. The number of resources out there to inform people has risen dramatically (e.g. IPhO).

I'm not qualified to comment on the fellow job situation, but what I can say with a high degree of confidence is that not all fellowships are created equal. Scope of responsibility and internal sponsorship/support vary dramatically depending on the company, the position and the leadership team sponsoring the fellows. That seems especially true for fellows in commercial and HEOR positions, where there may be an experience gating factor. I've heard from fellows that they're sometimes encouraged to first go into sales or go elsewhere to earn their stripes. Some fellowships fully support their fellows to transition into their assigned role internally.
 
I see.

It does seem like the number of fellowships, particularly ones unaffiliated with universities, has grown. I've seen several large healthcare advertising and medical writing agencies post up fellowship opportunities. This seems to be partly supply-driven, partly a democratization of information. The number of resources out there to inform people has risen dramatically (e.g. IPhO).

I'm not qualified to comment on the fellow job situation, but what I can say with a high degree of confidence is that not all fellowships are created equal. Scope of responsibility and internal sponsorship/support vary dramatically depending on the company, the position and the leadership team sponsoring the fellows. That seems especially true for fellows in commercial and HEOR positions, where there may be an experience gating factor. I've heard from fellows that they're sometimes encouraged to first go into sales or go elsewhere to earn their stripes. Some fellowships fully support their fellows to transition into their assigned role internally.
Agreed that not all fellowships are created equal, and barrier to entry is usually an experience thing.

What’s interesting in all of this is a trend of pharmacists trying to break in to spaces where they aren’t traditionally used and trying to make a claim for why they should be the “experts” in that particular area, creating disruption, tension and as a result, territorialism (Sound similar to the ‘pharmacists should do MTM’s instead of PA’s or NP’s because we’re the “medication experts”’ argument?).

Going back to HE&OR, for example, this is traditionally a PhD/health-economist dominated field, and all of the truly successful pharmacists who are able to break into these roles are leveraging at a minimum a Master’s degree if not a PhD (via PharmD/PhD) in health economics, and not their PharmD. PharmD is just another added credential but the value of standalone PharmD these days is rapidly diminishing.
 
Based purely on your username and how overly dramatic the entirety of this post is, You are definitely a troll
 
You make a few decent points but your post is a bit sensationalist ...
  • Disagree with the jobs not being there regarding HEOR, market access, etc. as my experience strongly contradicts that statement. Fellows not getting jobs in HEOR / Market Access probably more has to do with the fact that the entry level positions in those fields are more strategic in nature and are traditionally at a higher level (e.g. minimum associate director) so they need to cut their teeth in a tactical role first
  • Taking a sales rep role is something to be commended for if you're in a commercial role ... I wouldn't look at it as a step down at all but rather delayed gratification + investing in your long term future
  • Not all fellowships are created equal --> definitely true
PharmD is how you break into a field - in areas where PharmD's are a rarity, if you want to move up the ladder, sometimes you need to "look more like" the typical candidate in that field ... whether that means getting an MBA, PhD, experience in XYZ, etc.

There's a lot of value in the fellowship, I would challenge you to find another program/path that (more or less) guarantees you manager after 2 years; and likely associate director/sr. mngr after another 2-3 years.

Honestly, as someone at least 5-years removed from fellowship, I'm surprised you feel any impact from (perceived) saturation ... you should be at a whole other level compared to recent fellows and/or incoming pharmacists breaking into industry
 
Honestly, as someone at least 5-years removed from fellowship, I'm surprised you feel any impact from (perceived) saturation ... you should be at a whole other level compared to recent fellows and/or incoming pharmacists breaking into industry
The effect of saturation isn’t affecting me personally, but I am very active/connected in the community and keep up with many new practitioners, so my viewpoint is very much modern and influenced by what I’m hearing out in the field.
 
As I proud NIH Fellowship completionist, not only do I not need any pharmacy organization's permission to do that work, ASHP and APhA are specifically not welcome in any of the HHS discussions (because many of us come from NIH, CMS, and AHRQ), contributing to why pharmacy never will get LIP status. As for industry, if you have the right ties, you'll be fine like always. If you don't develop those ties, well, that's on them.

When I was both a Fellow and a Fellowship Director, NIH approached ASHP at Rockville to enter negotiations regarding accreditation, and their response was so profit-hungry and content-poor, the joint funding organizations walked away and never looked back. As for myself, I don't think anything of non-NIH trained pharmacists in those non-traditional areas.
 
Disagree with the jobs not being there regarding HEOR, market access, etc. as my experience strongly contradicts that statement. Fellows not getting jobs in HEOR / Market Access probably more has to do with the fact that the entry level positions in those fields are more strategic in nature and are traditionally at a higher level (e.g. minimum associate director) so they need to cut their teeth in a tactical role first

There are plenty of HEOR manager (i.e. entry-level) roles that you would be qualified for right after a 2-year fellowship, since most of these positions are project management-based roles and working with vendors. The associate director HEOR roles you are referencing are the client-facing roles where you would be presenting economic data to payers alongside MSLs, so yes, those roles are more strategic by nature and require more experience. But the entry-level HEOR roles are drying up fast.
 
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There are plenty of HEOR manager (i.e. entry-level) roles that you would be qualified for right after a 2-year fellowship, since most of these positions are project management-based roles and working with vendors. The associate director HEOR roles you are referencing are the client-facing roles where you would be presenting economic data to payers alongside MSLs, so yes, those roles are more strategic by nature and require more experience. But the entry-level HEOR roles are drying up fast.

No, I was thinking more expansively. There's also CRO and Regulatory. It's unusual to have a two-year fellowship unattached to an MS degree. NIH more or less mandates it, AHRQ and PhRMA/BIO highly prefer it.
 
No, I was thinking more expansively. There's also CRO and Regulatory. It's unusual to have a two-year fellowship unattached to an MS degree. NIH more or less mandates it, AHRQ and PhRMA/BIO highly prefer it.

I was replying to someone else, not your post, and this is about industry HEOR, not NIH research fellowships which I would think falls more under the health services research category than HEOR (does NIH recruit at Midyear?). When you get into regulatory and CRO that is drifting more and more away from industry-based HEOR worktypes anyways.

The term “fellow” has a different meaning depending on where you’re doing your training, and it seems like you did a different type of fellowship than what I’m talking about, but it is a good point that there are different kinds of “outcomes research” pathways.
 
I'm not sure what you are getting at, jobs in "non-traditional" areas have ALWAYS been more saturated then jobs in the traditional areas. The only ones saying otherwise are pharmacy schools, who generally are clueless about work in the real world. This stuff was commonly known in the pre-internet days (just from networking, ie asking around), so there is really no excuse for today's students not knowing it in an internet world.
 
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I'm not sure what you are getting at, jobs in "non-traditional" areas have ALWAYS been more saturated then jobs in the traditional areas. The only ones saying otherwise are pharmacy schools, who generally are clueless about work in the real world. This stuff was commonly known in the pre-internet days (just from networking, ie asking around), so there is really no excuse for today's students not knowing it in an internet world.
I agree completely. But this post is to raise awareness of this issue because I’ve seen countless posts on here about saturation and the proposed “solution” is always to go into a non-traditional field like industry, informatics, etc.
 
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I'm not sure what you are getting at, jobs in "non-traditional" areas have ALWAYS been more saturated then jobs in the traditional areas. The only ones saying otherwise are pharmacy schools, who generally are clueless about work in the real world. This stuff was commonly known in the pre-internet days (just from networking, ie asking around), so there is really no excuse for today's students not knowing it in an internet world.

I agree with this. Just from what I see, >50% of the jobs are chain retail, while >50% of the pharmacists graduating in the last 5-10 years want to do something other than chain retail. There’s an obvious unbalance here. I’m not at all a doom and gloomer who obsesses about saturation, but if I was going to offer a pre-pharmer any advice it would be this: don’t go into pharmacy unless you can see yourself standing behind a retail counter 40 hours a week until you retire.
 
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I agree completely. But this post is to raise awareness of this issue because I’ve seen countless posts on here about saturation and the proposed “solution” is always to go into a non-traditional field like industry, informatics, etc.
Oh, I don't know about that. I feel like most of us here are pretty open about the scarcity of those jobs. I'm quick to tell anyone interested in informatics that you must be willing to search nationwide to find a position.

I really hope pharmacy schools aren't telling students that this is a growing field. A large hospital that staffs 100+ pharmacists may only have 3 or 4 informatics pharmacists. Large healthcare systems have even lower ratios.
 
Oh, I don't know about that. I feel like most of us here are pretty open about the scarcity of those jobs. I'm quick to tell anyone interested in informatics that you must be willing to search nationwide to find a position.

I really hope pharmacy schools aren't telling students that this is a growing field. A large hospital that staffs 100+ pharmacists may only have 3 or 4 informatics pharmacists. Large healthcare systems have even lower ratios.
I think there is a point to be made about pharmacy schools also “over-representing” career pathways and job opportunities for pharmacists.

In my P1 year we had a class where a different pharmacist would come each week and give a talk about what they do in their role, and...yup, you got it, exactly 0% of these speakers were retail or hospital staff pharmacists. (They come from areas like PBM, government, IHS, obscure clinical specialties, military etc)

Not to mention that “clinical pharmacy” and residencies were preached throughout school with no mention (or training) in retail — seriously, the majority of our curriculum focused on inpatient drugs.

Hard not to be starry-eyed until halfway through your P4 year (or even worse, after you graduate and start looking for jobs) when you realize that everything academia told you is a lie. That they bring in “unicorn” pharmacists to highlight their career path as part of a conspiracy theory to paint the “field is evolving”, “world is at your fingertips” picture. That you fell hook, line and sinker to your professors because the 1% preaching to the 99% doesn’t all of a sudden mean there is demand for 2%.
 
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Hi, I am a current P4 looking into doing a fellowship, hopefully in HEOR. Do you have any recommendations for good programs that would help me stand out after I finish?
 
Hi, I am a current P4 looking into doing a fellowship, hopefully in HEOR. Do you have any recommendations for good programs that would help me stand out after I finish?
What is your end goal?
 
I'm not sure what you are getting at, jobs in "non-traditional" areas have ALWAYS been more saturated then jobs in the traditional areas. The only ones saying otherwise are pharmacy schools, who generally are clueless about work in the real world. This stuff was commonly known in the pre-internet days (just from networking, ie asking around), so there is really no excuse for today's students not knowing it in an internet world.
I agree with this. Just from what I see, >50% of the jobs are chain retail, while >50% of the pharmacists graduating in the last 5-10 years want to do something other than chain retail. There’s an obvious unbalance here. I’m not at all a doom and gloomer who obsesses about saturation, but if I was going to offer a pre-pharmer any advice it would be this: don’t go into pharmacy unless you can see yourself standing behind a retail counter 40 hours a week until you retire.
I do think there is a distinction between nontraditional 'saturation' and traditional 'saturation.'

'Saturation' in traditional areas simply comes down to [# who apply] / [# of jobs]. In areas such as retail staffing and hospital staffing, most pharmacists who have a license and submit a resume for a job not already pre-filled are qualified and in consideration for what they applied for - i.e. there are few automatic experience, skill or credential cuts (perhaps PGY1) that put them out of the running because their training is applicable.

'Saturation' in nontraditional areas comes down to [# qualified for the role] / [# of jobs]. So while there may be a large number of students looking to enter nontraditional paths, they may either not have the toolkit or the awareness to do so. There are numerous slices that may come into consideration, such as school you went to, graduating GPA, specific experiences during school and skill sets possessed.

For example, how many students come out of pharmacy school knowing how to read a 10K and build a financial model? How many students come out knowing how to utilize Alteryx and Tableau to visualize data? How many students come out knowing how to program on Python? How many students come out knowing how to statistically interpret data on R? And how many of those actually did anything with those skills during school in internships or research?

This distinction is, from what I see, what keeps most students out of nontraditional jobs. Then there's the networking and resume cuts afterward; many nontraditional jobs have a stronger networking element and also require a different style of resume writing than what students are taught in school.
 
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I do think there is a distinction between nontraditional 'saturation' and traditional 'saturation.'
This distinction is, from what I see, what keeps most students out of nontraditional jobs. Then there's the networking and resume cuts afterward; many nontraditional jobs have a stronger networking element and also require a different style of resume writing than what students are taught in school.

Yes, this is all true. BUT there are many people who are qualified for these jobs (although a very small subset of the pharmacist population at large), who cannot get a job in these fields, because there are still more qualified applicants than there are jobs. These jobs are indeed saturated in the traditional sense, even if the majority of pharmacists do not qualify for them.
 
Hi, I am a current P4 looking into doing a fellowship, hopefully in HEOR. Do you have any recommendations for good programs that would help me stand out after I finish?
Before you narrow down programs prematurely, I'd suggest you explore all of them in the desired fellowship specialty and then start filtering the ones you definitely don't want. Then you make your decisions once you have offers in hand - not before.

The best programs will teach you the complete toolkit for your desired role and will support your growth internally. To figure that out - ask the right questions before, during and after Midyear. Examples:
  1. Where have other fellows gone after fellowships? (are fellows exiting to roles I'm interested in? Are they exiting to the company and/or role that they did a fellowship in? Did they train them well such that they're progressing at a good rate?)
  2. What types of projects do the fellows here work on? (is the fellowship mainly teaching you soft skills? Are you being interwoven in projects with more technical elements? can you apply those projects to the roles you're looking for post-fellowship?)
  3. What skill sets do fellows here gain during the program? (what tangible skills do you come away with?)
  4. What opportunities are there for secondary education? (can you get an MPH, MS or MBA if desired?)
  5. Who do the fellows interact with regularly? At what departments and levels are those people? Who is the preceptor? (would you be supported by and working for people who are decision makers, and/or will provide you with the exposure and scope you're looking for?)
Yes, this is all true. BUT there are many people who are qualified for these jobs (although a very small subset of the pharmacist population at large), who cannot get a job in these fields, because there are still more qualified applicants than there are jobs. These jobs are indeed saturated in the traditional sense, even if the majority of pharmacists do not qualify for them.
It somewhat depends on the role in question (e.g. are we talking about clinical roles or more esoteric ones), but as a whole I do agree. That's generally where I think networking and resume crafting play substantial parts. The scales seem to be tipping as retail becomes more and more saturated relative to those roles.
 
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Before you narrow down programs prematurely, I'd suggest you explore all of them in the desired fellowship specialty and then start filtering the ones you definitely don't want. Then you make your decisions once you have offers in hand - not before.

The best programs will teach you the complete toolkit for your desired role and will support your growth internally. To figure that out - ask the right questions before, during and after Midyear. Examples:
  1. Where have other fellows gone after fellowships? (are fellows exiting to roles I'm interested in? Are they exiting to the company and/or role that they did a fellowship in? Did they train them well such that they're progressing at a good rate?)
  2. What types of projects do the fellows here work on? (is the fellowship mainly teaching you soft skills? Are you being interwoven in projects with more technical elements? can you apply those projects to the roles you're looking for post-fellowship?)
  3. What skill sets do fellows here gain during the program? (what tangible skills do you come away with?)
  4. What opportunities are there for secondary education? (can you get an MPH, MS or MBA if desired?)
  5. Who do the fellows interact with regularly? At what departments and levels are those people? Who is the preceptor? (would you be supported by and working for people who are decision makers, and/or will provide you with the exposure and scope you're looking for?)
Thanks for the advice! I have been researching the different roles that one can do in managed care and narrowed it down from that. I will definitely incorporate some of those questions though when I go for PPS!
 
To work developing models like BIM, CEA, etc. or to help write reviews of new drugs in the pipeline.
Start by looking at 2 year, degree-granting fellowships. Heck, I would say apply to all of them since there aren’t that many to begin with anyways. Then get a feel for what their programs are like through the various rounds of PPS, and figure out who the notable alumni are that graduated from each program. The programs with the most distinguished alumni (in terms of number of impactful publications produced, roles held, leadership positions held in AMCP, ISPOR, academia, etc) tend to be the most respected programs. But these are obviously the toughest ones to get into because they look for substance versus who is the best talker (which unfortunately is what describes most fellowship programs).
 
Start by looking at 2 year, degree-granting fellowships. Heck, I would say apply to all of them since there aren’t that many to begin with anyways. Then get a feel for what their programs are like through the various rounds of PPS, and figure out who the notable alumni are that graduated from each program. The programs with the most distinguished alumni (in terms of number of impactful publications produced, roles held, leadership positions held in AMCP, ISPOR, academia, etc) tend to be the most respected programs. But these are obviously the toughest ones to get into because they look for substance versus who is the best talker (which unfortunately is what describes most fellowship programs).
Thanks, I have been looking and reaching out to people who are experienced in building models. I have been learning how to get better with excel since some of the models have been built in there. I am fortunate enough to be able to rotate in a PBM for my next block that deals with a lot of data analytics. I have been involved in AMCP for a while and done things like P & T competition. I hope I look competitive on paper.
 
Traditionally you would want to decide what you want to do and pursue the degree(s) and certificates that to attain your career goals. With pharmacy it's the opposite. You take out $200k+ in loans to get a PharmD, then decide what you want to do for the rest of your life.

You like IT? Go into pharmacy IT.
Research? Do research with your PharmD.
HVAC pharmacy? Soon there will be a PGY1 in that.

But if all else fails, you will end up behind the retail counter (possibly assembly line or even unemployed if Amazon takes over) for the next 40 years just like the majority of others who enter the profession.
 
Again, I don't know any pharmacist who is unemployed. I also don't know of any 6 year program that gives you 120-140k straight out of school. Deteriorating working conditions? Yes, but this is everywhere. Corporatization is happening everywhere.
 
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To work developing models like BIM, CEA, etc. or to help write reviews of new drugs in the pipeline.

I consider Rutgers's various programs collectively the best, and then University of Washington's PORPP and USC-Rand's joint program the other two leading programs.
 
I think there is a point to be made about pharmacy schools also “over-representing” career pathways and job opportunities for pharmacists.

In my P1 year we had a class where a different pharmacist would come each week and give a talk about what they do in their role, and...yup, you got it, exactly 0% of these speakers were retail or hospital staff pharmacists. (They come from areas like PBM, government, IHS, obscure clinical specialties, military etc)

Not to mention that “clinical pharmacy” and residencies were preached throughout school with no mention (or training) in retail — seriously, the majority of our curriculum focused on inpatient drugs.

Hard not to be starry-eyed until halfway through your P4 year (or even worse, after you graduate and start looking for jobs) when you realize that everything academia told you is a lie. That they bring in “unicorn” pharmacists to highlight their career path as part of a conspiracy theory to paint the “field is evolving”, “world is at your fingertips” picture. That you fell hook, line and sinker to your professors because the 1% preaching to the 99% doesn’t all of a sudden mean there is demand for 2%.
We had a professor tell us there were jobs as pharmacists on cruise ships. We were like...WTF?
 
Again, I don't know any pharmacist who is unemployed. I also don't know of any 6 year program that gives you 120-140k straight out of school. Deteriorating working conditions? Yes, but this is everywhere. Corporatization is happening everywhere.

Why would you know many unemployed pharmacists unless you're still hanging out with pharmacy students? There have been multiple students posting on here that large portions of their classes are unemployed. As for the 120-140k that's been well established as a mirage for the majority of graduating pharmacists.
 
Why would you know many unemployed pharmacists unless you're still hanging out with pharmacy students? There have been multiple students posting on here that large portions of their classes are unemployed. As for the 120-140k that's been well established as a mirage for the majority of graduating pharmacists.

Huh? I know plenty of people from my class with steady jobs since they graduated. Many have been able to move back and forth from retail to hospital or from retail to LTC...they don't have any issues getting a new job if they wanted/needed. This is anecdotal but my friend got fired from one of the top 3 chains...hopped onto a temp gig at an LTC and they made him FT like 3 months later. This was very recently. So yea..I can't speak for a newly minted graduate but if my colleagues are able to jump back and forth between different jobs then it can't be that saturated out there...probably just high turnovers that's all.
 
Huh? I know plenty of people from my class with steady jobs since they graduated. Many have been able to move back and forth from retail to hospital or from retail to LTC...they don't have any issues getting a new job if they wanted/needed. This is anecdotal but my friend got fired from one of the top 3 chains...hopped onto a temp gig at an LTC and they made him FT like 3 months later. This was very recently. So yea..I can't speak for a newly minted graduate but if my colleagues are able to jump back and forth between different jobs then it can't be that saturated out there...probably just high turnovers that's all.
Some of the pharmacy schools post student outcomes data on their websites... I think I saw one at 28% who did not have a job secured by graduation, another at 40%. Of course they may have found jobs in the proceeding months, but I don’t think anyone has data on outcomes 6 months or a year after graduation, at least not publicly posted. My guess is least some proportion of them are unemployed or underemployed at this time. If you consider that the norm is 32h/wk and $50-55/hr at this time for new grads, 120-140k isn’t exactly the average.
 
I have tremendous respect for pharmacists. Trying to makes some positive comments/posts so that I don't have too few posts.

Sending positive vibes everyone's way!
 
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I have tremendous respect for pharmacists. Trying to makes some positive comments/posts so that I don't have too few posts.

Sending positive vibes everyone's way!
This is a doom and gloom thread buddy. No positive vibes allowed here.
 
Positive vibes are not supported by facts and statistics here.
 
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