How to own your own pharmacy?

[eddie269]

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Hi guys, this is my 1st post in the pharmacy forum (I'm usually at pre-pharm area). Anyways, my parents just sold their old business and are interested in a new area of work. They are looking into a few ideas and I brought up opening their own independent pharmacy (I am a pre-pharm student and that's my suggestion). A few questions come up right away.

1) Is it profitable (or even possible) to own your own pharmacy and not be a pharmacist? They would probably do the register, inventory, maitaining the store (would sell other health care items, i.e. OTC drugs, etc) and obviously write the checks. They would hire their own pharmacists to run the store.

2) How does one go about starting opening one up? (Where to get a drug supplier, etc etc).

If anyone knows of an owner of a pharmacy who ISN'T a pharmacist, or know of any resources, please let me know. The LONG term plan is for me to work there someday (maybe, maybe not) but in the mean time, they have money to invest and they need work. Hopefully this is the proper forum for this question.

 

[bananaface]

You have to hire a pharmacist to manage the pharmacy no matter what. Laypeople aren't allowed to run the actual pharmacy. They could own a store, but would have to give their head pharmacist the authority to make pharmacy management and professional decisions.

The average independent store owner makes about 300K, their own salary included - but that varies based on volume. It's probably only practical from a business standpoint for a layperson to buy a preexisting store. You'd have to see how much the store has a history of making, then take out the head pharmacist's salary and benefits.

My neighbor's daughter married a guy whose dad (a pharmacist) owned like 3 local pharmacies. He gave his son (not a pharmacist) one of the closed-door (ie: fills nursing home meds and home health/infusion stuff) stores as a wedding present. I'm not sure how that has worked out.

 

[BiOGoly]

The average independent store owner makes about 300K, their own salary included - but that varies based on volume.

Do you have a link to any of these stats? I can't seem to find anything more recent than 2002, where total EBIT was listed at about 200k...I'm guessing this is an average including owners of multiple pharmacies.

 

[bananaface]

Do you have a link to any of these stats? I can't seem to find anything more recent than 2002, where total EBIT was listed at about 200k...I'm guessing this is an average including owners of multiple pharmacies.

They told us that in class. I think PCCA is the original source.

 

[eddie269]

so the most logical way of doing this would be to buy out a pre-existing pharmacy? Hmm, I'll have to look into that and see exactly how much who makes. If it's not profitable, then that's the end of that. Thanks for the input banana!

 

[DaveRX]

A good way to start an independent pharmacy is to open up next to some physician buildings. It is very convenient for the patients. I know a pharmacist who owns an apothecary shop and he made substantial profit his first year.

 

[bananaface]

In class we were told it usually takes about 6 months to start turning a profit when you start totally from scratch. One guy who started up a compounding pharmacy said it initially cost him 40K for the very basics. As the business grew, they have gradually added more equipment.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

As bannana said, a thing to look into is buying an existing pharmacy from a pharmacist who is about to retired. One way you can do that is by joining up in an organization such as NCPA or national communityof pharmacist association where they have a program that makes it easier for you to buy a pre existing pharmacy.

Hi guys, this is my 1st post in the pharmacy forum (I'm usually at pre-pharm area). Anyways, my parents just sold their old business and are interested in a new area of work. They are looking into a few ideas and I brought up opening their own independent pharmacy (I am a pre-pharm student and that's my suggestion). A few questions come up right away.

1) Is it profitable (or even possible) to own your own pharmacy and not be a pharmacist? They would probably do the register, inventory, maitaining the store (would sell other health care items, i.e. OTC drugs, etc) and obviously write the checks. They would hire their own pharmacists to run the store.

2) How does one go about starting opening one up? (Where to get a drug supplier, etc etc).

If anyone knows of an owner of a pharmacy who ISN'T a pharmacist, or know of any resources, please let me know. The LONG term plan is for me to work there someday (maybe, maybe not) but in the mean time, they have money to invest and they need work. Hopefully this is the proper forum for this question.

 

[blueclassring]

i want to own my own pharmacy one day and am looking into joining ncpa when i get into school good luck

 

[WVUPharm2007]

If I were to open a pharmacy, I would go the Medicine Shoppe route.

 

[sdn1977]

Eddie - I saw your location is SF/Davis...is that where your parents are? If so....the urban bay area (well... Davis is not very urban, but similar demographic & close to urban Sacto) is very impacted for an independent pharmacy. These pharmacies have tremendous competition from large corporate retailers & need a "uniqueness" to them - like compounding - which is also very expensive to undertake. There are professionals in the business who can evaluate the demographics and advise on the viability of an independent pharmacy. I don't have the links for you right now, but I'll try to look for them. Its a tough business to get into because of the cost of inventory, reimbursement (AWP - %), difficulty competing with large buying groups, insurance plans forcing pts to member pharmacies (or mail order!).....I think it rivals opening a restaurant - difficult at best. In addition, as an owner, they have no say over the decisions their pharmacist-in-charge makes - puts them in a riskier position.

 

[Sosumi]

If I were to open a pharmacy, I would go the Medicine Shoppe route.

Doesn't Medicine Shoppe force you to pay a monthly franchise free? My professor hates that.

 

[kwizard]

Doesn't Medicine Shoppe force you to pay a monthly franchise free? My professor hates that.

Yep, Medicine Shoppe does have a fee that they charge. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it has its pro's and con's. Medicine Shoppe's catch is that they supposedly help you w/ the purchase of the pharmacy and various logistics (contract w/ wholesaler, location, etc); however, once you get started you are pretty much on your own, but still have to kick back a percentage of the profits to Medicine Shoppe (typically ~100,000/yr depending how profitable your store is, these are just quotes that I have heard so I'd check for exact estimates). Either way, this "fee" tends to be a "nag" when you're making your revenue w/ little support from Medicine Shoppe outside the use of the "known name". The reality of it is that most pharmacist lack the start up cash to get their own pharmacy so Medicine Shoppe is a feasible option.

You may want to check out The National Community Pharmacist Association for more info in getting your own pharmacy (NCPA: http://www.ncpanet.org/). They do a lot of lobbying and guidance for independent pharmacists and publish potential pharmacy sellers/buyers at the end of their monthly journal "America's Pharmacist".