How Pharmacies Can Gain a Share of the Profitable Veterinary Medicine Market

How Can A Pharmacist Earn Money Online By Watching Videos
How Can A Pharmacist Earn Money Online As A Kid
How To Make Money Online As A Pharmacist
How Can A Pharmacist Earn Money Online As A
How Can A Pharmacist Earn Money Online At Home

Inside: The veterinary medicine market is booming for pet prescriptions, OTCs, and veterinary compounding. Discover how independent pharmacies can gain a share of the profitable market that was once closed off to them.

Your pharmacy’s most profitable customers might be furrier than you think.

It is better than earning money by playing online poker or trying to earn a living by adopting a trading system. It makes more sense to earn money through idle processing mining for bitcoin than gambling away your opportunities. Work in midnight, evening, every minute of every day or on more than one occasion in seven days. Whenever as you need. You Can Make Money Selling Online Courses Creating and selling online courses can be a powerful driver for passive income if you put in the time to build a high-quality course and market it properly. While it does take time to create all the pieces for your online course, once you have it completed, it can generate revenue for years. Work from home jobs for moms $14/hr. Make money from home in 50 states. We may have an opportunity for you, if you are the right fit. At Pleio, we believe we are making a difference in the lives of patients on new medication. Through GoodStart we offer the delivery of a tailored support program to get patients on to a good routine.

Pet owners spent an estimated $69 billion on their pets in 2017. Of that, they spent nearly $15 billion on supplies and over-the-counter (OTC) medication.

That sounds like great news for veterinarians. But what does it mean for independent community pharmacies?

Can pharmacists dispense veterinary drugs?

The veterinary medicine market is changing. In the past, veterinarians didn’t write prescriptions for their animal patients. They solely dispensed the medication at their offices and gave the pet owner instructions on how to use it.

“The animal owner didn’t have a choice,” said Irwin Rashkover, CEO of Animal Med Express, a company that supplies animal prescription, OTC, and nutritional products to retail pharmacies nationwide. “And the veterinarian would do the fulfillment at a 100 to 200 percent margin.”

But major policy changes have opened up the market. At least 42 states now require veterinarians to issue a prescription to animal owners when they request it. And the American Veterinary Medical Association’s (AVMA) code of ethics requires the veterinarian to issue a script when requested.

“Those two things alone have changed the historic monopoly,” Rashkover said. “You have the birth of a very substantial market.”

How profitable is veterinary medicine?

Now that animal owners can leave their veterinarian with the prescription, they have the freedom to get it dispensed where they want. That means independent pharmacies have an opportunity to take a bite out of the veterinary market.

“Right there is a substantial amount of revenue that will offset losses that retail pharmacies are experiencing in human meds,” Rashkover said.

And that revenue doesn’t have to come from new patients if you already have a solid patient base under your roof.

“It’s safe to say that 65 to 70 percent of the patients you’re currently filling scripts for probably have a pet at home,” said Chris Cielewich, Vice President of Independent Accounts at FLAVORx, a company that allows customers to personalize the taste of their medication in pharmacies. “If they’re not getting their prescription from you, then that’s an opportunity to grow your business.”

Even better, veterinary medicine brings in more than revenue. It brings in profit.

“The margins are really good,” said Donnie Calhoun, CEO of the American College of Apothecaries (ACA) and the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists (ACVP). “The reason the margins are really good? Because 99.9 percent of all the prescriptions are cash. You get to set your price. They’re not set by a third party. So, why would you not want to do that?”

How do you become a veterinary pharmacy?

But independent pharmacies that want to get into the market face challenges.

“Most pharmacists are not trained on veterinary pharmacy and veterinary practice, or veterinary medicine in general,” Calhoun said. “Amoxicillin works the same way in a baby as it does in an old person, but it may not work the same way in a dog and a cat. You’re not taught canine and feline anatomy and physiology in pharmacy school. You’re not taught how drugs work in a horse.”

Because pharmacists aren’t trained specifically in veterinary medicine, most drug distributors won’t hand their product over to any retail pharmacy. Although, that could be changing.

“We have limited access,” said Calhoun, who also owns Calhoun Compounding Pharmacy in Anniston, Ala., which offers animal compounding. “Drug companies don’t want to release that drug to a pharmacy that’s not qualified to have it.”

Farzana Kennedy, R.Ph., FACA, owner of Alexandria Compounding Pharmacy, an independent community pharmacy in Alexandria, Va., has seen even stricter requirements from veterinary wholesalers. “They won’t provide services to you because they are really committed to vets,” she said. “The only way for you to get anything from that supplier would be to have a veterinarian on staff. Because they don’t use a pharmacy license. They use a veterinary license to open up an account.”

Seeing resistance from veterinarians

Veterinarians share the same concerns about pharmacies as drug distributors.

“We know that pharmacists are trained professionals who want to do what’s best for their clients,” said Michael San Filippo, Senior Media Relations Specialist at the AVMA. “That being said, local pharmacists may not be aware that animal physiology and pharmacology can differ significantly from that of humans, and this can lead to unintentional prescription errors and conflict.”

The other reason pharmacies face resistance from veterinarians has nothing to do with trust. “Your primary competitor is the vet themselves,” Calhoun said.

Take a look at this image below. https://cleverpaint.amebaownd.com/posts/21506982.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported in 2015 that prescription medications make up 20 percent of a typical veterinary’s total income.

That’s a large chunk of revenue they risk losing to pharmacies.

The FTC recognizes this conflict. According to the same FTC report, “Some stakeholders argue that if limitations on prescription portability and restrictive distribution practices were eliminated, the market would continue to develop in ways that are more responsive to consumer preferences. They suggest that this might, in turn, enable pet owners to further reduce their pet care costs and provide them with additional purchasing options. Other stakeholders contend, however, that such changes would not reduce prices or increase convenience but would instead undermine pet health and the financial stability of veterinary practices.”

Overcoming challenges in veterinary pharmacy

Even though independent pharmacies face major obstacles, those challenges shouldn’t keep them from getting involved in veterinary medicine. “There are lots of ways to get into the veterinary space,” Calhoun said.

The most effective way to overcome the distrust of distributors and veterinarians, and to find success in veterinary pharmacy, is to gain the proper knowledge.

“Drug disposition varies greatly in animal patients when compared to humans,” said Gigi Davidson, B.S.Pharm., DICVP, Director of Clinical Pharmacy Services at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, who’s been practicing veterinary pharmacy for 35 years.

How Can A Pharmacist Earn Money Online