NACDS Chair Mike Wysong, chief executive officer of CARE Pharmacies
NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson
NACDS President and CEO Steve Anderson: “For an association that prides itself on representing ‘the face of neighborhood healthcare,’ these are exciting times.”
NACDS Chair Mike Wysong, chief executive officer of CARE Pharmacies, and NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, today welcomed NACDS-member retailers and suppliers to San Diego, CA, for the NACDS Total Store Expo — the third conference in the 2023 calendar of NACDS events celebrating the Association’s 90th Anniversary Year.
Speaking at today’s Business Program during the conference, Wysong andAnderson delivered a clear message to meeting attendees: The pharmacy industry owns this Association’s 90-year legacy, and together through NACDS, it has a unique opportunity to advance it.
During his remarks, Wysong thanked NACDS chain and supplier members for coming together to commemorate 90 years as an association, celebrate 10 years of the NACDS Total Store Expo and create new firsts that shape our future. He declared:
“The NACDS Total Store Expo continues to reimagine ‘what could be’ and to foster innovation by bringing together the right people, at the right time, in the right setting.”
Anderson echoed Wysong’s thoughts, emphasizing the moment that exists now for the industry and for the nation — and NACDS’ place in it.
“For an association that prides itself on representing ‘the face of neighborhood healthcare,’ these are exciting times. These are times of rapid progress for all facets of the industry: pharmacy, health and wellness, consumer goods, the supply chain, technology and beyond,” he said.
Anderson continued by describing the Association’s consistent purpose since its inception in 1933, driven by a “passion for pharmacy and for retail,” “the relationship between retailer and supplier” and the “industry’s collective bond with the American consumer.”
He noted that Nate Shapero, the second volunteer president of NACDS in 1939, characterized this purpose with a motto: the “Triumph of Cooperation.” Shapero defined NACDS from the start as “an effective instrument for the development of a sound relationship between the manufacturer, the producer, the chain store and between ourselves and the public.”
Wysong and Anderson went on to demonstrate what NACDS and the Triumph of Cooperation looks like today — three and a half years after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wysong said, “The pandemic has come and gone and there is a heightened sense of awareness of pharmacies’ growing capacity and capabilities…
“[At the NACDS Annual Meeting,] I talked about our industry being full of great artists. Artists who share a common set of values, and whose paintings differ provider by provider, but who’s spoken and understood expressions are remarkably coherent.”
Wysong explained that the pharmacy industry — and its passionate artists — are making tremendous progress on NACDS policy priorities that are essential to Americans and to the pharmacies on which they rely. Importantly, they are achieving this progress together through NACDS, and thanks to the Triumph of Cooperation
Specifically, NACDS — through the leadership and engagement of the NACDS membership — continues to build on priority issues and focus areas, including:
- sustaining the all-levels and all-branches of government pursuit of real and comprehensive pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform and direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fee reform;
- addressing the systemic issues threatening patients’ health and wellness – particularly chronic disease and diet-related disease – through the “NACDS 2023” Initiative and through strategies that include the acceleration of health data and technology and partnerships in healthcare;
- urging states to use the time provided by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) extension to safeguard patient access by making permanent all of the policies that empowered patients’ pharmacy access during the pandemic;
- maintaining Americans’ post-pandemic access to critical pharmacy-based services by passing the bipartisan Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act (H.R. 1770/S. 2477); and
- recruiting continued active engagement in NACDS’ industry-leading meetings, conferences, and grassroots advocacy programs.
Importantly, Anderson made special mention of the member-driven “NACDS 2023” Initiative for health and wellness — which is about the future of NACDS and of the industry, both retailers and suppliers. Notably, NACDS 2023 is all about pharmacy transformation, health and wellness solutions throughout the store and partnerships with NACDS members and others in healthcare.
He said of the Initiative, “Today, we have news of an exciting partnership. NACDS, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University are collaborating on an unprecedented public health education campaign, with the tagline: Nourish My Health.
“What a great lead-in to a total-store and total-person approach. And what a great example of that Triumph of Cooperation through NACDS that features the value of pharmacy; the collaboration of retailers and suppliers; and the bond with the American public.”
Wysong concluded his remarks by detailing a series of events in which he engaged between the NACDS Annual Meeting in April and the NACDS Total Store Expo that promote collaboration with organizations in the advancement of NACDS’ policy priorities.
He said to the audience on the topic, “At the end of the NACDS Annual Meeting, I issued a rally cry to our artists to collaborate in new and innovative ways, and to begin that collaboration now. You responded, and we have been busy painting new pictures of what could be together since that time.”
Editor’s Note: Photos will be available via Flickr.
