Pharmaca defines industry, shaped expansion in 2001

BOULDER — In a time of corporate closures and layoffs, Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy boasts healthy growth. Since the venture began at the end of 2000, it has opened four pharmacies and is hoping to add six to eight more in the coming year.

With 2001 revenues of $7.2 million, an increase of 118 percent from the year before, the Boulder-based pharmacy chain ranks No. 5 on The Business Report’s list of fastest-growing private companies in Boulder and Broomfield counties.

Co-Chief Executive Barry Perzow said Pharmaca has identified 150 of the 25,000 independent pharmacies in the country that are in communities that have the right demographics to support an integrative pharmacy.

SPONSORED CONTENT

How dispatchable resources enable the clean energy transition

Platte River must prepare for the retirement of 431 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable, coal-fired generation by the end of the decade and address more frequent extreme weather events that can bring dark calms (periods when there is no sun or wind).

Perzow and co-Chief Executive Dale Schwartz want their pharmacies in communities with neighborhoods that have nearby medical facilities such as hospitals and surgery centers, and a synergy among neighboring businesses that promote a wellness/alternative lifestyle, Perzow said.

Also, about 45 percent of the population in those communities needs to be 45 to 65 years of age, and the mean household income about $90,000, he said.

?We would like to acquire about 16 to 20 pharmacies over the next five or so years,? Perzow said. The plan would be to hire the existing staffs of stores they acquire, renovate the shops and relaunch them with the Pharmaca marketing campaign.

Perzow, Schwartz and about 15 private investors own Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. Start-up costs in November 2000 were $1.2 million when Pharmaca opened its first full-service, prescription-filling pharmacy in North Boulder’s Ideal Broadway Shops, a strip mall at the corner of Broadway and Alpine Street. The second location, on the corner of 17th and Pearl streets in downtown Boulder, opened in March 2001

Pharmaca will convert Lo-Do Pharmacy, 1527 Wazee St., in Lower Downtown Denver in the third week of May. The company opened a store last October in Portland, Ore. and another in Mill Valley, Calif. on Feb. 3.

Other shops are planned for San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif., and Seattle.

Sunny Brown, a customer at the pharmacy in North Boulder, explained why she likes Pharmaca: ?They cover the gamut of herbal, homeopathic and traditional. It’s sort of like three or four approaches under one roof.?

Both Boulder stores carry conventional as well as complementary health-care products; however, the Pearl Street location carries more supplements and offers pharmaceutical compounding.

A compounding pharmacist can take medications and change their delivery system from a pill to a topical cream, suppository or oral suspension form to decrease a drug’s side effects. Such a practitioner can add a tasty cherry flavor to a child’s expectorant, for example.

Historically, all pharmacists were trained in compounding, but the skill is rare today. It must be taught in additional classes and workshops, said Perzow, who is president and co-chief executive of the company. Pearl Street’s compounding pharmacist also fills prescriptions for veterinary products.

?It’s a real specialty with inventory and facility requirements,? he said. ?You need specific equipment and space in order for the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) to allow you to do compounding.?

Thus far, all Pharmaca employees, from stock people to cashiers, are herbalists, homeopaths, naturopaths, nutritionists or estheticians. Though this may change as the company grows, health-related advice is offered in free, private consultations lasting up to one hour.

?More than 80 percent of Americans are on some form of supplementation, and by 2004, 4 billion prescriptions will be filled in the United States,? Perzow said. All Pharmaca pharmacists are trained in nutrient depletion and side effects. They also are willing to consult with a customer’s primary-care physician.

Most Pharmaca stores offer chair-massages and conduct cholesterol, blood pressure and bone-density testing at health fairs throughout the year. The pharmacies also provide guest lectures on health-related issues like childhood immunization.

Though the shops carry Chinese herbs, homeopathic products, teas, vitamin supplements, body-care supplies, and customary over-the-counter medications, there is some merchandise the chief executive officers refuse to offer. Don Summerfield, vice president of retail operations, is also a certified herbalist and educator. He visits many manufacturing plants as a quality control measure.

Customers might be surprised when they don’t find some popular diet products and versions of human-growth hormones at a Pharmaca store. ?They may be very popular, but because we have a safety issue with them, we won’t carry them,? he said.

Summerfield had been in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years. He was the president of a pharmacy for six years, and he worked in the Wild Oats chain for five years.

Perzow was in retail for much of his life dealing primarily with natural products. He was the former president of Capers, a natural foods grocer that merged with Alfalfa’s. Perzow and Summerfield began researching the Pharmaca venture after Alfalfa’s sold to Wild Oats four years ago.

?The one segment of the retail industry that has not changed in 40 years is the pharmacy industry,? said Perzow. ?We’d like to think we’re in the process of redefining tomorrow’s pharmacy.?Contact Sheryl Bass at (303) 440-4950 or e-mail [email protected]