VIABILITY is defined as a commercial judgement to meet ongoing financial obligations, with an additional margin of comfort to support future investment and trading. Assessing the viability of a business is key to determining the stage of its life cycle, knowing when to invest in development and when to decline in business closure.

The BBC news in December 2022 warned that some pharmacies of Northern Ireland may not be viable due to funding. The Financial Times had supported this view, citing reason such as the price for commodities like antibiotics which exceeded the compensation from NHS. However, these fears were not supported by the officials of Northern Ireland.

On the ground reports from pharmacists indicated similar losses from other such commodities like asthmatic inhalers and omeprazole, a drug for stomach ailments.
Other factors for closure considerations were overhead costs such as employees’ payroll and electricity.

As a result, an emergency review was set up and is currently in process, after which the findings and next steps are anticipated to be shared.

Company Chemists’ Association in England shared findings from their research posted in October 2022 which indicated that over 40 per cent or just over 800 permanent community pharmacies were disproportionately closed during the period 2015 to 2022; half of which were located in the most deprived parts of England. It is important to note that only 138 new pharmacies opened during this period.

The macro impact of such closures significantly affected their governmental “levelling up” policy to smoothen the unequal access to healthcare by the various strata of society.

These closures diminished social support for underserved communities and reversed the call by NHS England for pharmacies to play a bigger role at this time, when resources were stretched, due the aftermath of the pandemic, having filled the gaps.

These threats further widened the gaps of health inequality and posed a national pressure to universal healthcare.

The influence of community pharmacies in the undeserved parts of England was demonstrated by performance output during the COVID-19 vaccination drive in the period January to November 2021. One third of the total vaccination numbers were done by collective efforts of these front-line entities, of which 20 per cent were from deprived communities.

A similar pattern seemed to have occurred in the United States as highlighted in a December 2022 Forbes edition which reported that Rite Aid had planned to prune more than the 145 unprofitable retail outlets from their fleet of 2324 in 2023. It had reported a quarterly loss in excess of sixty-seven million with anticipation of further losses in 2023.

Published in a December 2022 edition of USA Today, other major chains of pharmacy in the United States such as Walgreens started cutting hours of work due to labour shortages, affecting access to prescription medications especially for the vulnerable such as low-income patients, the elderly and ethnic minorities. Other stated factors for these closures were customer buying habits and local market dynamics.

CVS, another lead player in retail pharmacies had slated to close approximately 900 pharmacies over the next three years and is on target with its 300 closures in 2022.

Those pharmacies that provided service to the publicly insured population generated a slimmer profit margin than privately insured clients. Similarly, independent pharmacies faced closures from reduced profitability due to pharmacy benefits manager, where the top three (CVS, Cigna Express Scripts and United Health Group) controlled 80 per cent of the market.

Just this past week the Business Insider announced that Walmart will be closing 20 of their retail outlets located in eleven states due to poor performance attributed to sales, product margins and expenses.

These closures further create economic hardship due to loss of income for the persons who were gainfully employed. An incremental two per cent increase is projected in pharmacist employment in the United States for the period 2021 to 2031; slower than all other occupations. Transfers, exits and retirements were the optional reasons foreseen for job openings in this career choice according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For further discussion, contact the pharmacist of Medicine Express Pharmacy located at 223 Camp Street, between Lamaha and New Market Streets. If you have any queries, comments or further information on the above topic kindly forward them to medicine.express@gmail.com or send them to 223 Camp Street, N/burg. Tel #225-5142.