ALEXANDRIA, Va.  — The National Community Pharmacists Association is pleased to announce a multi-year effort with the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics to address growing concerns about barriers in pharmacy access, including closures.

B. Douglas Hoey

The Pharmacy Access Initiative will generate real-time information for national, state, and local policy officials, health care academics, industry leaders, and others to identify communities lacking in pharmacy access. Better data on the proliferation of so-called pharmacy deserts could help policymakers and industry leaders and, ultimately, underserved communities. This research is already underway and should begin being released in the coming months.

NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey said, “We know that many patients live within 5 miles of a pharmacy, but what about those who don’t? What about those with mobility or transportation limitations or other challenges where 5 miles might as well be 500 miles? Where could they access COVID-19 vaccines or other needed health care services? What can be done to help these communities have access to pharmacy care? These are the types of questions we’re looking to help answer through our Pharmacy Access Initiative partnership with USC. We’re grateful for this opportunity to collaborate on such an important issue for patients across the country.”

USC’s Dima M. Qato, Hygeia Centennial Chair and Associate Professor of  Pharmacy and Spatial Sciences and Senior Fellow with the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics said, “Despite growing concerns about barriers in pharmacy access, including closures, national, state and local policy officials often lack the evidence-base to promptly respond to, and inform, regulations or legislation to protect neighborhoods and pharmacies most at-risk. Therefore, the goal of this new USC-NCPA Pharmacy Access Initiative is to serve as resource for federal and state policy and public health officials by conducting research and generating real-time evidence on the scope and impact of the problem of pharmacy access and identifying sustainable policy solutions to address it.”