Pharmaca Integrative brings pharmacies into 21st century

BOULDER ? Barry Perzow thinks it?s high time pharmacies enter the 21st century.

?We are redesigning pharmacies for today,? Perzow says. ?If you look at pharmacies today, they really haven?t changed. Most retail stores have reinvented themselves to change with the times, but pharmacies haven?t done that. So we are doing it.?

The kind of pharmacy he envisioned a few years ago ? and now has created ? gives consumers a blend of natural and conventional medicines under one roof.

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Perzow is co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Boulder-based Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, which is based on the traditional European pharmacy, where complementary and alternative medicine and conventional medicine never split into two separate camps.

And the company has found a ready-made recipe for fast growth. Independent, neighborhood pharmacies have been losing market share to the big chains for years. So Pharmaca is buying out these independents, redesigning the stores and often keeping the pharmacists who work there. Perzow has dubbed the strategy ?saving the family pharm.?

Pharmaca?s innovative business model won the company a 2004 IQ Award in the consumer category.

After Pharmaca buys and redesigns a pharmacy, the difference is obvious ? from the look of the outside to what is on the shelves.

?We basically redesign the entire store to fit our look and feel,? Perzow says. ?And we were careful to match the existing architecture to fit in nicely.?

Inside the stores, there?s a heavy emphasis on health education. Perzow says the neighborhood pharmacy traditionally was known as a ?place of intimacy and connection,? and he wants to restore that in his stores and educate customers.

Pharmaca introduces new products and concepts to its customers through educational health lectures and screenings or through conversations with staff. ?Most customers are more than eager to learn about their health. The interest in complementary and alternative medicine has grown steadily nationally,? Perzow says.

Customers also can draw on research libraries or access information online in the stores? reading rooms.

Pharmaca carries professionally formulated supplements, herbs, homeopathic medicines and aromatherapy as well as standard over-the-counter products and full prescription services, which include compounded medicines in select locations.

Steve Hoffman, president of Compass Natural Marketing, a marketing consulting firm for natural products in Boulder, says he believes Pharmaca is carving out a nice niche for itself.

?I don?t see anyone else building a chain like Pharmaca,? he says. ?Whole Foods and Wild Oats ? stores like that ? don?t have pharmacies. It?s certainly a concept that has attracted investors, and I can see why.?

Hoffman says the industry Pharmaca has entered is worth $43 billion and grew 9.9 percent in 2003. ?This is not a fad. It?s growing significantly, and I believe it will continue.?

Pharmaca?s roots go back 20 years to the beginning of the organic foods movement. Perzow and Russell Precious founded Capers Inc., a natural health retailer in Vancouver, Wash., which was acquired by Alfalfa?s Market, which in turn was acquired by Wild Oats. Based on their experience in natural food store settings, they came to appreciate how overwhelming the selection of natural supplements and remedies had become and thought their expertise could benefit the consumer by editing the offerings based on strict guidelines for product quality and effectiveness.

At the same time, studies showed that 72 percent of Americans were using alternative therapies without telling their doctors, and nearly 20 percent of adults were taking herbal remedies and prescription medicine without telling their doctors.

With the growth of the prescription market and the herbal remedy market, Perzow says consumers needed a place to find the quality products they wanted, but also learn at the point of purchase how to avoid serious complications from drug and herb interactions.

The health philosophy behind Pharmaca is a ?wellness pyramid? that makes drugs a choice of last resort. At the pyramid base are lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise, proper breathing and water. The next level is wellness practices and exercise, including yoga and meditation. After that, proper dietary supplementation and preventative health measures make up the next levels.
The pyramid then reaches the illness states where patients might change diet or try a homeopathic remedy instead of immediately reaching for drugs. Finally, the top of the pyramid is reserved for surgery and drugs, which in many cases are the most appropriate treatment as determined by the patient and physician.

Pharmaca currently has nine stores in Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington. One of its stores is in downtown Boulder on Pearl Street, another in North Boulder. Pharmaca expects to add three more stores in the United States by the end of the year.

Perzow says what he considers to be most innovative about Pharmaca is its employees.
?At the end of the day, Pharmaca is most concerned with providing best care for our customers, so we staff each Pharmaca store with specially trained pharmacists, naturopaths, herbalists, nutritionists and estheticians who consult with customers on the best conventional and natural health solutions.?

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy
1655 Walnut St., Suite 210
Boulder, Colo. 80302
(303) 442-2304
www.pharmaca.com