The Pharmacy Lab Updates The Pharmacy Model To Align With The Modern Concept Of Wellness

When shoppers enter a chain drugstore location, wellness isn’t generally what’s conveyed by the teeming aisles, bright lights, impersonal service, harried pharmacists and often long lines for medicine.

Serina Hanlon knows the environment in and out, having been a pharmacist at one for a dozen years—and she believed there could be a better choice. “If you go into a Walgreens or CVS, it’s complete chaos. The pharmacists are pulled in all different directions. They have to check tons and tons of prescriptions, and they have to make sure there are no errors with insurance, so taking care of patients falls off,” she says. “You haven’t seen any changes in the pharmacy model, so I wanted to create a new concept.”

Hanlon’s new concept is The Pharmacy Lab, a 1,000-square-feet wellness-driven compounding pharmacy in Toronto’s Leslieville neighborhood with a highly trained staff and beauty retail component. Opened Dec. 16, the pharmacy stocks around 20 clean beauty brands, including Atelier La Vie Apothicaire, VO Beauty, Basic Maintenance Lab, Nelly De Vuyst, Three Ships, Free + True and CLE Cosmetics, chosen for their attention to quality formulations, conscious beauty principles and limited distribution. Although not every brand is Canadian, The Pharmacy Lab has a preference for Canadian brands.

New pharmacy, wellness and clean beauty concept The Pharmacy Lab is located in a 1,000-square-foot space in the Toronto neighborhood Leslieville.

“You walk in, and it feels more like walking into a luxury spa than your typical drugstore. People come in, and it’s a lot of fun for them to explore new brands they haven’t seen before. You get helped by one of our staff right away to learn about the different products,” says Hanlon. “What we want to evoke is that calm, relaxing feeling that you feel when you walk into a spa or wellness boutique. Typically, when you walk into a drugstore, it’s stressful. Your senses are overwhelmed. It’s calm and simple here.”

Diana Vo, founder of the skincare brand VO Beauty who lives close to The Pharmacy Lab and is providing facials at the store, is thrilled it’s launched nearby. “I find most pharmacies are stark white walls and an intimidating atmosphere, not exactly welcoming for those who need prescription medications or those who just want to explore what’s out there,” she says. “The Pharmacy Lab concept is innovative and less intimidating for the community to not only shop at, but also feel welcomed at a pharmacy.”

“Typically, when you walk into a drugstore, it’s stressful. Your senses are overwhelmed. It’s calm and simple here.”

The Pharmacy Lab has five people on staff to handle prescriptions and offer education on beauty products. “Typically, when you open a small, independent pharmacy, there will be one or two people working. We are more staffed because of compounding. We are not just pouring pills out of a bottle and counting them. It’s more labor-intensive,” explains Hanlon. “And all of our staff is quite knowledgeable about the brands we carry. We have learned their stories and what they’re known for. Each product has its hero ingredients. Because we’re a small store, we can learn all of that.”

Compounding pharmacies produce medications meeting the needs of individual patients. Getting into compounding prescriptions isn’t easy. Specific equipment is required to run a compounding pharmacy, and the governments of Canada and the United States recently shored up compounding regulations to standardize protocols. Hanlon approximates it cost her about 600,000 Canadian dollars or roughly $450,000 to set up The Pharmacy Lab with compounding equipment on-site and assemble its clean beauty assortment.

The Pharmacy Lab founder and pharmacist Serina Hanlon

According to IBISWorld, the compounding pharmacy segment in the United States generates $10.2 billion in revenue and is projected to grow 1.6% this year. In contrast, the market research firm figures the conventional pharmacy segment generates nearly $350 billion in U.S. revenue and is poised to grow 3.1% this year. The American Pharmacists Association estimates that, out of 56,000 independent pharmacies in the U.S., about 7,500 are compounding pharmacies. Walgreens alone has 8,800-plus U.S. locations.

While compounding pharmacies aren’t as ubiquitous as their chain drugstore counterparts, Hanlon is confident there’s demand for them in specific neighborhoods interested in wellness, which she underscores is the case with Leslieville, that have a dearth of compounding operations available. She says, “There’s room for more boutique and specialized types of practices that are unique to and appropriate for a given area that aren’t necessarily one-size-fits-all.”

“I would love to evolve the way people think about pharmacists and pharmacy in general to be less about chaos and integrated more with the current direction of wellness.”

To start, Hanlon expects compounding to account for 80% of The Pharmacy Lab’s revenues. Her goal is for the store to reach 500,000 Canadian dollars or approximately $372,000 in first-year revenues. “Over time as people get to know the brands we are carrying and we refine the selection, the percentage will change,” says Hanlon. “When you go to a large drugstore, it’s the other way around: 80% front-of-store and 20% pharmacy. When you think of a Costco, they use pharmacy as a loss leader to drive traffic. So, the model is different from a large drugstore.”

Hanlon is busy securing relationships with prescribers to build The Pharmacy Lab’s compounding business. In particular, she mentions dermatologists turn to compounding pharmacies for medicines tailored to their patients’ skin. In addition, she points out prescribers may elect for compounding pharmacies for pain medications as they seek opioid alternatives.

The Pharmacy Lab carries around 20 clean beauty brands, including Atelier La Vie Apothicaire, VO Beauty, Basic Maintenance Lab, Nelly De Vuyst, Three Ships, Free + True and CLE Cosmetics.

“Whenever there’s something not exactly right with what is regularly available on the market, even a non-prescription medication, your troubleshooting option would be to go to a compounding pharmacy,” says Hanlon, continuing, “Another thing about compounding prescriptions is they are not usually covered by insurance. They are typically out of pocket. The patients willing to pay out of pocket for prescriptions are the same people who are willing to invest in wellness and self-care.”

Although Hanlon’s focus for now is on The Pharmacy Lab’s Leslieville location, she plans to expand it elsewhere. “I do want us to keep going, but I’m trying to be humble so we can succeed at this stage,” she says. “Also, I would love to evolve the way people think about pharmacists and pharmacy in general to be less about chaos and integrated more with the current direction of wellness.”