The Irish Medical Times - Gen Z and Pharmacy
If Taylor Swift can have eras, so can industries, I believe we are in the era of reinvention. Banks, the poster child for bricks and mortar, are moving online. Hoteliers are losing out to people renting out their own homes, forcing hotels to rebrand as ‘experiences’. Taxis are switching to apps. Even Health is looking at telemedicine and digital care.
Nobody is too big to change.
What are retail pharmacies doing?
In a way, pharmacies moved on from solely providing apothecary services many moons ago, possibly before anyone else thought of diversifying. At a minimum, pharmacies across the globe are medicine and cosmetics providers, but often a convenience store to boot. Finding a chemist that just dispenses medicine is a rarity.
Despite this entrepreneurial flare, it often feels to the customer that the chemist is still controlled by Big Pharma. The medications are the most important thing on the premises and they dictate the run of the place.
While in New York I wanted to buy some painkillers. On previous visits to the Big Apple it felt like there was a drug store on every corner. You couldn’t turn your head without Duane Reade or Rite Aid slapping you in the face. Not to mention Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy popping up everywhere, packing a punch. However, in this post-pandemic world where the internet is king, I had to walk three blocks before I found a dispensing chemist. A testament perhaps to people moving online and to alternative products.
I had to forage my way through aisles of potato chips, soda drinks and plastic toys before I found the paracetamol, known in the States as acetaminophen (why the US has a different name than Europe for the same chemical compound is beyond me). The name wasn’t the only difference, in the US painkiller medication is kept under lock and key. In fact, most of the medical items and even hygiene products were imprisoned.
Shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste were all teasing me from behind a plastic screen. Presumably not to drive people to peaks of frustrated desire, but to dissuade shoplifting. This crime has skyrocketed in recent times due to inflation, economic hardship, leniency on misdemeanour crimes, and staff fearful of attack or counter arrest if they intervene.
I pressed a button and waited for the green haired staff member to finish his sale of copious amounts of flaming hot cheetos to a spaced out teenager. With a face full of piercings and disinterest the employee slowly made his way over to me and massaged his way through a fistful of keys before he found the right one.
Abrakadabra! The cave opened and I chose the biggest bottle of pills I could see to avoid returning for more of this peepshow nonsense the next day.
With my precious pills clutched to my chest I had to slog my way back through the crisps and candy to exit the store. Why do drug stores sell so many products outside of drugs?
This is not just an American phenomenon. Boots, a giant pharmacy retailer in the UK and Ireland, sell sandwiches and trendy beauty products alongside heart pills and diabetes meds. Obviously it is to entice shoppers into the store and sell some by-product while they are waiting to pick up a prescription.
If we took away the distracting side income from the confectionary and beauty products, the pharmacy is following a somewhat old fashioned business model where the big pharmaceutical companies are calling the shots.
Will Big Pharma continue to control the market forces? Or are they in for a big shock when the ‘fast fashion’ effect hits pharma, and some company in Asia starts cranking out cheaper meds you can buy online delivering them quicker than you can say “Abrakadabra, Acetaminophen!”
Much of the rising generation document inane details of their lives, they do not meet doctors with hushed tones, and hospital halls are not hallowed. They take selfies with their surgeon and document every single aspect of their health journeys. They take life advice from Youtube influencers, and they buy most of their possessions online. They want it now, they want it cheap and they don’t like paternalistic providers with a history of non-sustainable morally ambiguous practices.
Very recently, HRT estrogen patches became unavailable in Ireland because of supply issues with big pharma, while they worked out some regulatory issues. The middle aged female patch using population was up in arms, we complained to each other like fish wives that had run out of fish. Oh, we were livid, many a stern look was given to the unlucky pharmacist that had to keep informing us that no patches had come in. But we waited, and we tried pumps and puffs and pills, and we cried, and eventually our trusty patches came back into circulation.
There is no way Generation Z would put up with that for a minute. They would go online, they would look to Asia, they would get a cheap and cheerful patch alternative, probably called a Pookie Rizz Patch, delivered by a drone, and they wouldn’t set foot in a pharmacy ever again - fast meds!
As jarring as that might sound, our younger counterparts might be onto something. Of course, retail pharmacies are still our go to place for vaccines, treatments, ointments, and good old fashioned advice -and I do want them to stay around. However, I think they need to strategize for the change in consumer habits and thinking. Public and patients want to feel more in charge of their healthcare, they don’t want to be at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies anymore. It’s not just Gen Z that like convenience, people of all ages are moving online to find better deals.
Like many parts of life, it’s an ambiguous matter. On one hand, I think your local pharmacist is an important part of your health team. I would have doubts about trusting an online pharmacist, especially when I have a long list of medications and a complex medical history. But we can’t ignore the advent of online pharmacies selling cheaper medications, such as Amazon Pharmacy or Cost Plus Drugs which brands itself as providing ‘radical transparency’ in medication pricing.
The advantage to the bricks-and-mortar pharmacy is the personal touch, the on tap extensive expert knowledge tailored to your on-the-spot questions and situation. They can also provide a battery of options and they can press it into your hand before you leave the shop, you don’t have to wait a day for a headache pill, it’s right there as you need it. It’s the most on-demand service you could imagine.
However, they are beholden to big pharma with the big price and delays that can come with that. There is definitely space in the new world order for pharmaceuticals and pharmacies, we don’t need to resort to buying unsustainable unregulated drugs from far away places. But we do need to revamp how the pharmacy world traditionally operates.
It’s not too late for the pharmacy industry as a whole to reinvent itself, to reimagine the power players in the equation, moving away from the producers and on to the public - provide more affordable medications in more online formats, emphasize convenience, reliability and expertise, partner with technology companies, focus on preventative care, utilise AI for drug discovery and actively involve patients more in the development process. Transform into a more agile, patient-focused sector.
Just as Taylor Swift has masterfully navigated and redefined her musical eras, the pharmaceutical industry faces its own era of reinvention. From the corner drugstore crammed with candy to the rise of online pharmacies and the growing demand for transparency, the landscape is shifting dramatically. The question is not if change will come, but how the industry will adapt. Will it cling to outdated models, or will it embrace the opportunity to connect with a new generation of empowered patients?
Pharma's future, like a highly anticipated encore, is full of exciting possibilities.
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