Endorsing pharmacists’ role, General Mills CEO named NACDS ‘Pharmacy Great Communicator’

ALEXANDRIA, Va. Reaching outside the pharmacy and health care communities, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores named General Mills chairman and CEO Kendall Powell a “Pharmacy Great Communicator” for his support of pharmacy and its role in health prevention and wellness efforts.

NACDS bestows the honorary title periodically, when opinion leaders “inject into the public debate the positive story of pharmacy’s role as the face of neighborhood healthcare.” Powell was cited by the group in part for comments on the value of pharmacy he made during ththis year's White House Forum on Health Reform.

“Your comments were very well received and widely reported regarding General Mills’ prevention programs for employees in the areas of asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and back pain,” NACDS president and CEO Steven Anderson told Powell in a letter. “There is no greater reward than your being able to say your employees are ‘profoundly grateful,’ and you described well the power of prevention: ‘We keep them healthy; we keep them out of the hospital; we save money for the company, which benefits everybody in the company.”

Powell’s remarks at the White House Forum constituted a high-profile endorsement of pharmacy’s value.

“We have white collar, professional, highly educated people at General Mills who do not know how to follow their meds,” he said at the meeting. “And so what we’re doing now – again on this prevention tact – is we’re sitting them down with a pharmacist. For as long as they need to, to understand what they’re taking, why, the consequences of withdrawal, all the interactions. And again it makes a huge difference in the management of chronic disease.”