Independent pharmacies seek Rx for success

If it weren't for the people he's grown close to over the years, pharmacist Ben Tally said he'd almost rather be doing something else.

"It's the people that keep it interesting for me," said Tally, who operates Medicap Pharmacy in Cape Girardeau. "The rest of it's been difficult at times."

Don't get him wrong, Tally loves being a pharmacist. But like many independent pharmacists in the country, times have been rough.

Independent pharmacy net profits continue to be among the lowest for small businesses nationwide.

Small pharmacies continue to compete -- or try to -- with mail-order pharmacies, the Internet and bigger chains, which can buy in bulk and sell products at lower prices.

Not to mention that many managed-care programs reimburse at lower rates and won't contract with independent drugstores, directing patients to fill their prescriptions at larger chains or, more frequently, with mail-order drug companies.

It wasn't that way when Tally finished pharmacy school 30 years ago.

"You have to do about 10 times as much money to make a living as you used to," he said.

Higher wholesale cost

Tally, and others, complain of the multi-tiered pricing, in which drug companies sell to hospitals, mail-order houses and others for a lot less than they sell to the independents.

Some local independent drug stores have closed within the past year. Super D, Bill's Pharmacy and Medical Arts Pharmacy, Inc., have all closed, either on their own or bought out by bigger stores.

The chains continue to thrive, however. Walgreen's reported earlier this month that January sales increased 17.2 percent from $2.03 billion last year to $2.38 billion. Other chains have seen similar increases.

Barbara Warner, the president of the Cape Girardeau County Pharmacist Association, said that smaller pharmacies are going to have to become much more involved in the care of people if they want to survive.

"We have to assume that role of teaching," Warner said. "We have to get away from what I call count, lick and stick. That's where the independents can be different from the big chains."

She said that customers will no longer see pharmacists standing behind the counter and will instead see them with patients, helping them with things like blood pressure monitoring, blood sugar checking and other health care items.

Internet no threat

The one thing that hasn't hurt independent pharmacies, Warner says, is the Internet.

"That hasn't caught on as well as people think," she said. "Older people do not get into using the Internet. My opinion is that it hasn't really impacted the prescription business."

Pharmacist Bob Pritchard, owner of Park Pharmacy at Doctor's Park, said it's not all bad.

The aging of the population has caused an increase of prescriptions.

"The population is living longer and baby boomers are getting older so we're seeing more 'scripts," he said.

There are also new medications that weren't around 20 years ago.

"There's more medicine in just about every category," he said. "There may have been 10 arthritis medicines, now there may be 20."

Pritchard said there are more medicines for things that wasn't a problem 20 years ago, like cholesterol.

"More people are eating fast food because everybody's got jobs," he said. "So now there are a lot of drugs for cholesterol. So it's not as bad as it could be."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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