Pharmacy institute awards $4.7 million in grants

Drug Store News, June 26, 2000 by James Frederick

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Throwing big resources into the chain drug industry's battle to ease the nationwide shortage of retail pharmacists, the Institute for the Advancement of Community Pharmacy has announced a series of 21 grants for new and existing schools of pharmacy.

The grants, funded by a $27.5 million endowment from Knoll Pharmaceutical Co., will total more than $4.7 million in outlays over the next five years. The funds will go to boost pharmacy school enrollments by exposing more students to career opportunities in chain and independent community pharmacy practice. The awards are also designed to expand pharmacy school curricula and facilities in a bid to expand the numbers of graduating pharmacists each year.

Laura Cranston, executive director of the two-year-old institute, said the initial round of grants will go to aid new pharmacy schools, expand existing educational programs and support patient-care activities and in-store training of pharmacy students. "We are not only looking at increasing pharmacy school enrollment," said Cranston. "We are focusing the institute's grant support on programs that are innovative, meaningful, and [that] will prepare pharmacy students to provide the patient care needed in the community setting."

Kurt Proctor, senior vice president of pharmacy policy and operations for NACDS, said the money will also "help pharmacists take on additional patient-care roles." He said the institute received more than 150 grant requests totaling more than $50 million during this first funding cycle.

"When you see $50 million requested in the first funding cycle, [it means] there's a lot of opportunity out there for our own chain members, pharmaceutical manufacturers and others to step up and bring their own resources to the plate," he added.

Grant recipients

Among the new schools which will receive grants are the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences - Worcester, which will become the nation's 82nd pharmacy school this fall with an accelerated three-year professional program and a class of more than 100 students. Other new schools in the funding pool are Southern Nevada Educational Services, which will open the first pharmacy school in the state this fall with 60 students; Palm Beach Atlantic College and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, both of which accept their first pharmacy students in fall 2001; and the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, with a program set to begin in fall 2002.

Funds for existing schools will support expanded pharmacy school facilities and additional faculty at 10 universities and colleges, including Wayne State, Auburn University, The University of Florida, Long Island University, North Dakota State and the Albany College of Pharmacy. The grants will provide for higher student enrollments, new practice laboratories and, at the Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions, the creation of an Internet-based doctor of pharmacy program.

In addition to the $4.7 million in institute funding, Proctor said the NACDS Educational Foundation is making grants of $650,000 to pharmacy schools in support of some of the same projects. "But most of them require resources beyond what we're able to do, and it's very important that everybody get behind these initiatives to help them achieve their full potential."

Proctor expressed particular enthusiasm for the Creighton University plan for an Internet-based Pharm. D. program. "It's allowing them to virtually double their enrollment, which has implications across the nation," he said. "It's a tremendous program. We're encouraging others to get behind projects like that."