Storm clouds
At NACDS Annual last year, retailers had many burning issues on their minds—PBM reform, competition from online retailers, rising drug prices. The list goes on. But one retail executive we spoke to said the one thing that keeps him up at night is the shortage of students entering pharmacy schools. It’s the ticking time bomb that should be taken more seriously, he said.
The numbers support his concerns. In 2022, the healthcare industry saw the graduation of 13,323 new pharmacists from 136 pharmacy schools reporting to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine said. This number was down from 14,223 the previous year, marking the largest drop since 1983.
“But what’s particularly alarming is that only 9,743 students were accepted through the Pharmacy College Application Service by the application deadline of June 2023,” the school wrote last year. “This unsettling statistic indicates a sharp decrease in new entrants to the job market within the next four years.”
“The pharmacist shortage isn’t just a numbers game; it’s become a tipping point for healthcare access,” the report said. “The shortage is magnified in underserved areas, creating what’s known as ‘pharmacy deserts,’ where patients have limited or no access to essential medications and health advice.”
When you combine the decline in pharmacy school enrollment with the fact that there are an estimated 10,000 pharmacist jobs unfilled (estimates vary), the outlook for the industry does not look good.
This month’s cover story explores the issues surrounding the pharmacist shortage and what retailers are doing about it. It also looks at what the declining rate of pharmacy school enrollment means for the long-term health of retail pharmacy.
“I wake up every morning and go to bed every night thinking about enrollment in our colleges of pharmacy,” said Lee Vermeulen, executive vice president and CEO, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. “It is a huge challenge, and I think it’s going to lead to a public health crisis.”