Pharmacy Trends: Evolving Patient Care at the Pharmacy POC

Jacob Harrison [00:00:10] Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us this morning. Around conversations around the neighborhood pharmacy. We’ll hop right into it and kind of kick off. And, Paul, let’s start with you. We’ve seen a lot of their big retail chains come into local communities and take over some of these smaller, independent pharmacies and then kind of go by the wayside. What do these smaller, pharmacies need to do to reengage those communities and be successful within that paradigm?

Paul Zvlaney [00:00:38] You know, Jacob, there’s a lot that needs to happen in there. And it’s really about that customer journey, the customer experience working from my organization, shine through. We have a 154 locations, so we’re not independent, but we’re on a large chain either. And it’s how do you differentiate that service? It’s more personalization. [00:00:54]It’s really about the services you offer at the end of the day. Every pharmacy can fill a prescription. But what other services can you give? How do you become that premier health care destination? Our goal is to create access to quality health care, and that means not only in our four walls, also outside of the four walls, to meeting our community where they need to be met, not where we want them to come. So when you look at that and you look at the amount of accessibility that all pharmacies have, or even more local ones and smaller ones in the point of care testing, we can do the immunizations we can do in a total overall health journey we can help you with. That’s how you differentiate. You take the time. You have those relationships [39.3s] when your customer calls you on the phone and you know that person’s by just by their voice, that’s impactful and means something to them. And, they’re not the old verbiage or, oh, what’s the number? You’re not. You’re you’re more there. It’s really about that personalized service, understanding that [00:01:51]as pharmacy is changing and evolving pharmacists can do a lot more. [3.4s] I’ve been a pharmacist for 28 years, and so I know that when I started 20 years ago to where the pharmacy practice is today, it’s very different, faster, better. And we’re immunizing, we’re doing strep testing, flu testing, Covid testing. You know, there’s a lot of different opportunities that we have. And we can continue to evolve again, which makes us different and differentiate sales from our competitors, the big box guys.

Jacob Harrison [00:02:16] Those are some great points. And David, do you think that that ultimately makes the small town pharmacy successful, or are there other contributing factors that would allow them to to flourish?

David Lichtenstein [00:02:25] Yeah, the most important thing just we’re saying is it’s [00:02:29]really about patient and being able to tailor programs to help that patient and be individualized. [5.4s] And then there’s a lot of services like an adult vaccinations and patient medication adherence that will help to differentiate that pharmacist. And it’s really all about individualized attention versus what you get at the other type of pharmacies.

Jacob Harrison [00:02:51] And like, are there any other differentiation factors that we should be accounting for that come from these smaller pharmacies versus some of these big box retailers?

Mike Wysong [00:03:00] So, good morning to all of you. It’s nice to see you. Thank you for having me this morning. So I think from my perspective, [00:03:07]when you look at pharmacy or you look at an organization like Care Pharmacies, it’s 130 community based, independently owned and operated providers that roll up underneath the care chain code. I think what the value of that is the collective expertise that resides within that, because the stores are all located in areas of high need. And so I think the best benefit of that, not just the accessibility that Paul talked about, is the intimacy of care that resides in each of those locations. To me, the intimacy of that is really what differentiates pharmacy from some of the other verticals within health care. [39.2s] And by observing that it isn’t denigrating the other verticals that that comprise our system. But to me, pharmacy is not only accessible, you know, [00:03:55]90% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. That’s important. So the accessibility of it, pharmacies and pharmacies tend to be one of the most trusted providers in the space. So I think it’s both of those things in tandem. [13.2s]

Jacob Harrison [00:04:09] Fantastic. I mean, so we know we’ve talked about the entity of what the actual pharmacy is. As we look inwards. What’s the role of the pharmacist now versus what it was maybe five years ago, maybe ten years ago? How has that evolved? How has some of the, the nuances in that small town pharmacy versus that big box pharmacy? How is that how is that pharmacist taking a greater role? And not all of you guys have been as you see fit. Do you want to take it?

Paul Zvlaney [00:04:37] No, I think I’d rather you go.

David Lichtenstein [00:04:39] Well, the role of the pharmacist has dramatically changed, and I think it had to change out of necessity. But you have pharmacists now involved in administering vaccines, engaged and patient. I think Covid helped to accelerate a lot of that difference. But but the role of the pharmacists is much more engaged with the patient from a provider perspective. And looking at it from a holistic and they’re looking at diabetes education, heart disease and just kind of help helping that patient more holistically than just filling a script.

Jacob Harrison [00:05:14] Fantastic.

Paul Zvlaney [00:05:15] In looking in being a pharmacist for 28 years and realizing how it has changed over the last five years–the question was five years–and if you think about what Covid did really elevate and perpetuate our careers, our businesses, what our licenses will allow us to do. It’s changed a lot. Obviously we give immunizations, everybody knows Covid vaccines are big and we all did those and all flu vaccines. I know we have 19 different ACIp vaccines that we can recommend, vaccines that we can actually immunize with. It doesn’t stop at adults because of children too. And it’s in that child segment and really helping those children out. And if you look at also what happens at our at our brand, [00:05:50]we try to continue to push that envelope of what can we do. It’s all about accessibility. You know, in Maryland, as an example, 50% of children don’t have a pediatrician or a home health help. So we become that home health and we work with the with the immunizations. We work with the illnesses and try to help them out. We work with all the health providers to get them connected to services. [19.6s] If you also look at what has pharmacy has done over the last several years, is now pharmacists are able to test or treat, actually test and treat ,so we can evaluate you. So you know, we if we believe based on these results in testing you actually have strep. You have flu. [00:06:25]Now we actually in certain states can prescribe medication which we weren’t able to do not too long ago. You know, birth controls the first, several years ago. But now we’re able to prescribe for 17 different elements in different states that we operate. Think about. Now you can go to a pharmacy seven days a week, you know, it’s oh, you can go to 8:00 at night, 7:00 in the morning, some are 24 hours to get that access to health care. So when you think about how pharmacists have changed, we’re well positioned to keep moving that bar forward and moving it up. [25.6s] And it’s I think our pharmacy professionals, they do want to do more than what they’re currently doing. So they are advocates to help continue to promote and elevate the brand and elevate their what they can do in our license.

David Lichtenstein [00:07:00] And just to add to Paul’s comments that [00:07:03]in order to make a sustainable change, a lot of things have to come into play. So you have to have CMS allow the reimbursement, the payers have to come on board and change their their protocols. Manufacturers have to reallocate resources. So ultimately for a sustainable change of just a lot of things have to come into play [20.1s] of course.

Mike Wysong [00:07:24] Yeah. So so so you’ve got kind of a multilayer analysis of this. So I’m old enough to have the benefit of looking retrospectively at where the industry is historically been to where it is today. And [00:07:35]if you go back to even 2009, back when H1n1 was a thing, you couldn’t vaccinate in all 50 states. And so you can today. And so I think what’s happened is there’s [8.8s] [00:07:44]been a collective awareness that pharmacy has the capacity and capability to really provide the infrastructure for a higher, a higher level of care that’s being provided out in these communities. [10.4s] And so I think that’s one aspect of it. The other thing is, is I always say that people never get into pharmacy by accident. It almost selects them the end up because they want to be organizers of chaos around people’s health conditions. So pharmacists gravitate to that because it’s fulfilling for them. And so I think there’s an inherent bias for those folks to want to solve bigger chaos in the service of their customers. And so I think you’ve seen that evolution happen as well. And then the reimbursement issues that the industry is faced with today. You touched on that a little bit, is absolutely the genesis of a changing model for providers like Care Pharmacies and Giant. [00:08:36]We are living in a time now in the pharmacy where when you dispense medications, many of them are at a loss. And so financially, it’s not sustainable to continue to operate the same services that historically you’ve operated in. So I think that becomes a great opportunity [15.5s] [00:08:52]as these models are moving from these fee for service models to the fee for value model. [4.7s] [00:08:58]You just in the center of that right now, I have run around the country for the last 12 years in my role as the chairman at any CDSs, and you can see that amongst the various shareholders that all want to come together and collaborate in new and creative ways to try to usher these new models of care in. [15.7s] And I think the point of care testing, the vaccinations, the testing and and all of that are where this is all going to move and it’s going to move that way. You can feel it.

David Lichtenstein [00:09:24] And just to add, [00:09:24]the driver of a lot of this change is coming from the patient. They value the role of the pharmacist. [5.1s] South Carolina, for example, is now looking at pharmacists who can vaccinate children pediatric. And that’s coming from the patients from the public.

Mike Wysong [00:09:39] You can see it in and we do a lot in [00:09:42]the specialty pharmacy space with the indigent population in D.C. around HIV. To me, that is quintessential of where the new models are going to move as well in terms of compliance and adherence and overseeing that patient provider relationship in a way that that really is difficult for other people to provide. [18.3s]

Paul Zvlaney [00:10:02] In thinking about all those services that we do offer. Because I think immunizations now, everyone knows pharmacies do them in the nation. I think it’s pretty, pretty level. But [00:10:09]the other point of care services that we offer aren’t necessarily known as much to the public. So it’s how do we continue to market and how do we continue to alert and educate and create the awareness for the general population to realize that you can come to us. It’s going to be faster. It’s going to be just the same quality. [15.7s] But getting that alertness and that awareness out there that we know, I know our brand we struggle with, we struggle just to get people to know that, oh, that’s a service I can go there for. So that’s really I, that’s that’s a really a changing thing as this is changing. This model is changing. And, you know, the reimbursements, we all know we’re challenging, we’ve got to find ways to continue to be sustainable and still be able to serve without shuttering our doors when the model doesn’t work.

David Lichtenstein [00:10:46] And Jacob there’s another way the rules changing. We talked about patient, the changing patient. [00:10:52]The role is also changing with the pharmaceutical manufacturers so that collectively the pharmacies, whether they’re specialty retail, they’re helping to improve medication adherence and reduce patient abandonment, and there’s programs that they enter into and participate as part of the partnership. So they’re also making a big difference for on the other side of the equation as well. [20.1s]

Jacob Harrison [00:11:13] And that’s a great point. I think we’ve seen in the you know, the bigger chain pharmacies, pharmacists are walking out there feeling the pressure of the new demands of their roles. We’re seeing that there’s not only a desire to do more, but an ability to do more. What is it that you guys are focusing on in your respective organizations to support the pharmacists? And maybe it’s and from an educational perspective, a technological perspective, one of those things, you know, those key levers that you’re pulling now to to help pharmacies to act in those new roles.

Paul Zvlaney [00:11:40] That’s a great question. And that’s very, you know, these last several months, last year we heard that all the pharmacists at Walgreens walking out in all of the changes. It’s a very stressful job. What do we do as an organization? We have several levels that we can and do pull. We have we have online technologies, whether it’s a scheduling platform to help control the flow of immunizations. We have remote services. So [00:11:59]we’re outside of the store doing data entry for prescriptions, doing pre verification for prescriptions. That takes 50% the workload off the store. And that allows that pharmacists to spend more time on the clinical base. You know, and really when it comes down to it, you want to make sure we give the proper staffing to be safe. Safety is number one, but also get that good service and personalized service. [18.3s] And I know I want to keep the layering on the PBM and third party reimbursements. But when you look at all your medications and anything that’s a brand medication, you take a read, you sell it less than your cost. It’s a problem. The GLP one goes mpix and what goes are all the hot topic everyone loves and it’s great. Keep pushing it. [00:12:33]I don’t know if anyone realizes every one of those that we dispense and sell, we sell at a significant loss, not break even what we pay, but a significant loss. You add that to your business model. It’s challenging to make that that revenue up, that profit, to keep the doors open, to pay the salaries, to keep sufficient help in there. [16.4s] I think any retailer wants to pull helping labor out of the store, but as your number one control expense, you have to think through those things and it’s really challenging. So we we provide we believe adequate staffing but also have those external factors, remote services tools and mobile apps to kind of help with that workflow and manage that workflow a little better.

Jacob Harrison [00:13:11] Any thoughts, Mike?

Mike Wysong [00:13:12] Yeah. So, so the last time I was in New York, I got to go visit SAP because I wanted to see what new technologies they had. And I while I was there, I ran into one of my VMI classmates from like, 30 years ago. And when we realized we recognized each other, [00:13:27]we clicked quickly, determined that honor, courage, and service are now no longer enough. You have to overlay that with innovation. Pharmacy is single handedly keeping the fax machine alive. Okay, when you look at the reimbursement pressures and you look at the desire for pharmacists to take on a bigger role, the time is now for partners like you to embrace these providers and help them innovate and be able to communicate in new and creative ways. I can assure you the time is now. Your pharmacy partners are looking for all of you to engage and come up with what could be. If you don’t hear anything from me other than these words, work in good faith with partners that historically you haven’t worked with, they’ll be delighted to go down that that process with you. [54.6s]

Jacob Harrison [00:14:23] Yeah. So I think there’s one, you know, components that we’re kind of, missing here, which is like the people component, right? These pharmacies do know Jane and Joe and Mary and the medications they’ve been taking in the holistic approaches they’re doing over the counter. And some of those measures. What are the people skills that pharmacists need to be successful? How do how do we rely upon them for things like adherence? What are some of those mechanisms that that perhaps are underlying some of the, components in that community?

Paul Zvlaney [00:14:55] If we look at it from whatpersonality traits you have as a pharmacist one. [00:14:58]You need to be patient. You’re dealing with a population that is maybe confused, unsure, scared, uncertainty. Had to say had a recent diagnosis. And how do we take that information and make it digestible for them? Anybody can go google something to make it digestible. Adherence is very large, very big. People we have seen many times when it comes down to financial situations, they’re taking half their medication or one every other day, and they want to stretch it and it’s up to us to really educate them on that–why it’s not right, why it’s bad. It’s us. We help them with it. If you can’t afford your medication, let’s find ways that we can make that work. [33.5s] We work with we have different softwares. That old line, will you medication. It will alert you when you take it or call you when it’s ready. We’ll call you when it’s ready. Make sure there’s no changes and try to keep you on that pathway. Because when you look at those the community you have your your split half those patients are knowledgeable. They just want to get in and get out. Other half have no idea. And they’re really scared. And they want you to work with them on those things. So it’s about the patients. The number one thing pharmacies, in my opinion, is being a pharmacist, is the patients and being willing to listen, to understand and help them through that journey because in it’s getting more and more, as Mike, you do a lot of specialty medications of care, and those are very complex and very challenging. And there’s a lot of when you have a specialty medication, a lot of times it’s a graver disease, right? You don’t you’re not getting treated for the flu. You’re being treated something much more significant, which comes a lot of worries and concerns. And so how do you have that bedside manner, the compassion in the patients at the office.

Jacob Harrison [00:16:23] Right. And and there’s a reliability. Right. Like Mike, maybe you can speak to the to that component. Right. There’s a an understanding or a feeling of connection to that pharmacist, but there’s also that willingness to accept the information you’re gathering from them as a subject matter expert and someone who’s confident in what they’re basically re prescribing from an HCP.

Mike Wysong [00:16:43] Again, I think [00:16:43]if you look at it, pharmacy and the role that pharmacy plays, they’re trusted providers. There’s an authentic intimacy that resides within the pharmacies. When you come in to get your your oncology medication or your HIV medication. And I think that when you have people that are working in that fashion together, there’s an objective trust that goes with that. I think that historically, the challenge with pharmacy is that we’re treating a problem that’s already happened. Right? And so there is a growing awareness that it’s better to treat some of these more systemic issues before they cause these problems later on down the line that become unsustainable in terms of prescription costs. So I think we almost have it backwards. And so point of care testing looking at food is medicine what you eat? Diet related illnesses like to me that is where these new models are going to go to in the pharmacies is going to be the quarterback. It’s working in tandem with the companies that are represented here in the room this morning to address those issues in the most humane way, so that the people that are being treated can go on and live lives of quality and meaning, and they’re not struggling, [75.7s] you know, in the last 20 or 30 years of their life with these chronic diseases that are difficult for them to care to deal with, and then all the people that have to care for them around that. And so I always say, you know, it’s never as good as you think. It’s never as bad as you think. It’s either way better than you think or way worse than you think. And so as individual providers, if you can do that as a care provision team, we just do it in specialty pharmacy. Then the impact that you have given the span and scale of time becomes quite significant.

David Lichtenstein [00:18:32] And part of the health care team.

Mike Wysong [00:18:34] Yeah. I mean, like I said, I wish I could overly complicate this and make it sound more cool than it is, but.

Jacob Harrison [00:18:40] When you make a great point, Ray, like something that we focus on from a retail media perspective and how we target patients, is that overall protocol. It’s not necessarily just the drug itself, it’s what else can we do to inhibit side effects? What else can we do to help you with, other other issues that you might be facing at the same time? Right. So it’s it’s the to your point, the pharmacist becomes the quarterback. They have that knowledge. They have the ability to be on both sides of the counter and really help you as you go through the whole store versus the ACP who gets roughly seven minutes in an office with you.

David Lichtenstein [00:19:11] And I was gonna add Jacob that, on two fronts, that [00:19:15]you have access to patients and consumers. And because you have access to patients through the data, you have manufacturers who are seeking to help improve medication adherence or reduce abandonment, or you have access to consumers. [14.2s] So you have a lot of different sides of the manufacturers looking to partner with pharmacies because of that access to the consumer, the patient and the doctor.

Mike Wysong [00:19:40] It definitely I think you also have to balance is there is a bit of a cautionary tale in that too, right? So when you’re talking about these fundamental underpinnings that need to be brought to life through new innovation, one of the things that you have to remember is at least in my opinion is that even though we’re now living in a digital world and things are happening much faster historically than they have, there’s still, I think, an irreplaceable component of that interaction that happens in a pharmacy. And that’s not to disparage online pharmacies or portals or things like that, but I think that becomes very difficult to automate. And so there has to be a harmonious balance of the intimacy that’s created within pharmacy and the ability to organize chaos much more efficiently because of the overlaying technologies.

Jacob Harrison [00:20:24] There really is there’s an omni dynamic intervention that needs to take place when you’re seen, you know, prior to Covid, the in-store was of the utmost important, but then the access digitally that they needed during Covid when stores were closed or there was a lack of, of a workforce, you know, really became an omni dynamic environment for for patients and consumers alike. That’s a great point. So we’ve we’ve kind of, hit on what’s currently going on, the state of affairs. What’s the future look like? Where’s the pharmacy go from here? And what what’s next?

David Lichtenstein [00:20:53] What the what I’m thinking collectively, Pharmacy collectively is looking to get more into the provider role for primary care, and they’re doing it in different ways. And again, to be sustainable, you’ve got to have a lot of factors come into play. So it’s not going to happen overnight, but it’s moving in that direction.

Paul Zvlaney [00:21:13] Future of pharmacy and I think we are a proven profession. If you go back a couple of years ago when the pandemic hit and Covid hit. Doctor’s offices went remote and virtual, other health care providers went remote and virtual. I speaking for Giant Pharmacy, we every store stayed open every time. We actually expanded hours of operation for seniors and those who are immunocompromised, starting at six in the morning till nine. That was the time for that patient population  2 days a week. So you think about the commitment that pharmacies making the health care system, right. Every not every a lot of other providers were staying behind closed doors, seeing you via screen, canceling elective surgeries. Right. Pharmacies are there every single day for a year and a half. We were there. We extend our hours extra. We never cut our hours of operation. So you think that’s that’s the commitment that pharmacies have to the community and the health care system. And where are we going with this? Again, the pharmacist ,myself included, we went to practice at the top of the license. So as the head of Giant Pharmacy. I look at how can we do that? How do we create awareness that we can do it? How do we show the value to our customers, the various all of you to alert customers. But really [00:22:17]it’s about helping the overall health care system. The more hurdles someone has to face to get treatment, the less likely they are to get that treatment. We’re very simple. We’re open 365 days a year. We’re over extended. The hurdles are less hurdles. We can help with the in-store experience. We can help walk the store. We have in-store nutritionists that help. They can help with the newly diagnosed diabetic patients who have hyper clustering, where they can help with those different things. So pharmacy is evolving to be working to be that provider status because there’s more that we can do. We know the medications, we know how they interact. We now can we now can do certain testings for certain medications, certain disease states. We can, we are looking at as a food, as medicine will be preventative and, you know, and take care of before the issue actually happens. That’s where I see pharmacy evolving to continue to evolve and be more into this program. [46.7s]

David Lichtenstein [00:23:04] There’s another interesting phenomenon going on for access to the data. They’re also looking at predictive modeling. And how do you predict a patient and their behaviors. But you can so you can prohibit it before it happens. That’s not something that is happening more at the headquarters level. But using the data and predictive modeling is is also another pathway.

Jacob Harrison [00:23:26] Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And so I’m going to selfishly take the last couple of minutes here and ask you guys something that I’m interested in. You know, the primary role that I serve CMI Media Group is we’re hitting these patients in a retail environment. In a pharmacy environment. What are the things that that we need to you as advertisers be thinking about, meeting patients and caregivers alike in those moments and those key moments between diagnosis, filling a prescription, adherence, what are what are the things that we need to be aware of? How do we draw a connection there and help these individuals?

David Lichtenstein [00:24:00] There’s a significant way, and it’s because the pharmacy is playing a unique position. [00:24:06]They’ve got access to providers, they have access to patients and they have access to the consumer. [4.4s] So you have all three when you have all three access and and the respect and the, and the data, then you’re going to have every manufacturer interested in in a partnership because that’s, that’s not a, that’s a rare event to have all of that access, have the respect and the data to do the measurement. You have all the pieces there for interest in participating to drive different brand strategies.

Mike Wysong [00:24:41] So I guess there’s kind of two questions there together. So where are we? Like you can’t turn the computer on or get your email without hearing about 400 stores closing or community pharmacies going out of business desert, you know, pharmacy deserts. That was in DC last week. We need with our senators and congressmen around PBM reform, right? Ten years ago, nobody knew what a PBM was. And so the underpinnings of what what’s happening there are really, really jettisoning providers looking for new areas not only to serve their customers, but also new revenue areas of revenue. So the short answer is [00:25:23]you’re in a moment of great uncertainty in pharmacy like I’ve never seen in 30 years. I’ve been in the space 30 years. I’ve never seen the uncertainty that’s there today because of the payer pieces of that, the declining economics on the wholesaler side. [13.8s] So then what where does it go? Well, it’s a moment of great opportunity. It’s a moment of great opportunity for the companies that are here. It’s a great moment in time and opportunity for the digital the digital companies to tell the story. Pharmacy has a compelling story. If you don’t believe me, go back to Covid 19. How many shots were administered? 400 million shots. [00:26:01]So pharmacy has a capacity. It has the capability. It has the infrastructure. The providers are ready to take on a greater role within the communities that they serve. And this country is going to need that, and it’s going to need people like all of you to support that and make it everything that it could and should be. [16.0s] We are going to high touch care models that will reward providers for value based outcomes. What time can I come back and tell you all I told you so. It’s coming. You can see it. So tell your stories, work and collaborate in new and creative ways. Your pharmacists need that and so do our collective customers and our patients.

Jacob Harrison [00:26:40] I have a feeling you’ll probably fax Paul an answer here in the near future, but I’d love to hear you weigh in on something like this.

Paul Zvlaney [00:26:47] Lot of great comments up here and being made with it. You think about for our brand. You know, we’re supermarket pharmacy, right? We’re a pharmacy inside of a supermarket. And we know that that pharmacy customers two and a half to three times more valuable to us than a non pharmacy customer. They make more trips to the store, they spend more money. So if you think about how do you get that messaging out to how do you make it a create awareness. It doesn’t need to be in that pharmacy sector and it can be across the entire store. Any channels that we play in, any channels that where you think what food would be in. And that’s why I think you look at it differently. I think sometimes we get focused in tunnel vision on, ‘that’s the four walls of the pharmacy’, which is very important and impactful. But we also know a lot of people overlook signs and don’t see things. So there’s different channels that you can think about other food, healthy food, natural foods like that, or anywhere that the customer would travel or what they normally would do in our stores. Social media, of course. And Mike, you’re right, turn the computer on. You see the stores are closing and letting people be aware that I keep saying that we offer services, we can offer free services. We do offer these services. We have 38 different services that we can offer in Giant Food Pharmacy 38. And if we can’t help with one of those, we have a way to point you somewhere that can. But no one–not noone–but how do people really know that it’s it’s that awareness is creating that awareness, whether it’s on a social feed, whether it’s on a geofencing targeting, whether it’s on, you know, the person with shopping for a tie so that we can hit them with something different, all those different avenues that we can really focus people on to create them, the awareness, the change is happening. Mike, David, Jacob, change is happening where we’re going to be deadly. [00:28:15]We have to evolve. If we do not evolve, it’s right now in this pivotal point, you’re going to be getting waiting days for prescriptions from a bigger box that’s in a big room, and you won’t have any personalized service that you need. The day is coming because it’s really challenging for us to continue to operate under the model that we currently are operating under, and I. [16.9s]

David Lichtenstein [00:28:32] Would suggest that the trajectory is going in the right direction and recognizing the value that pharmacies play. It’s it’s not happened overnight, but it’s going in the right direction.

Mike Wysong [00:28:42] Yeah. And I can tell you from my visits last week, I [00:28:44]think there’s a collective acknowledgment in the nation’s capital that pharmacy plays an important and critical role in terms of addressing the needs of, of, of the American consumers that come into these stores. So I’m happy about that. [12.8s]

Jacob Harrison [00:28:57] And I think something that we touched on earlier, right, is the omni dynamic capability of the pharmacies to be both digitally inclined as well as in the actual physical store. There’s that bridging the gap of where there are pharmacy deserts that we can be serving. And from a digital space, there’s that 1 to 1 personal contact that we’ve seen. [00:29:14]70% of Americans who are consumers have gone back into the physical store location for a pharmacy interaction. So the ability to be what we call at CMI media group, being phygital, being both physical and digital, is incredibly important for the for the advertiser, for the manufacturer to be able to properly communicate to the patient and the consumer to David’s point, and be able to provide alternative medications, the right things to help, you know, solve your specific disease state and then also resources the pharmacies, the HCP to be able to get additional answers and continue to have that face time to feel comfortable in the solution that you’re being provided. [33.6s]

David Lichtenstein [00:29:49] And Jacob, as the products evolve as the so to does the type of services that, you know, patients and providers.

Jacob Harrison [00:29:56] Definitely 100% agree. Well, I want to thank you guys all for attending our panel this morning. Thank you all for for taking some time in answering my my questions up here. And you know, appreciate it.

Paul Zvlaney [00:30:08] Thank you everybody. Thank you for this.