He had been SVP of pharmacy, health and wellness at Albertsons since 2015.

BOISE, Idaho — Chain drug industry veteran Mark Panzer, who most recently headed Albertsons Cos.’ pharmacy operations, has left the company to pursue other interests.

Mark Panzer

A former chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Panzer had been senior vice president of pharmacy, health and wellness at Albertsons since 2015.

“We sincerely thank Mark for his contributions in leading our GM/HBC and pharmacy teams for the last several years, and wish him well in his future endeavors,” said a company spokesman.

Panzer started out in chain drug retailing more than four decades ago with Osco Drug Stores. He ultimately became vice president of sales and marketing for Osco’s parent, American Drug Stores, then continued in that role for Albertsons when that supermarket chain acquired American Stores in 1999.

In 2001, Panzer left Albertsons to take the post of executive vice president of store operations at Rite Aid Corp., and in 2005 he was named its senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer. He left Rite Aid in 2008 to become president and chief executive officer of Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy before returning to Albertsons in 2015.

“Health care in the long run is going to become a limited network of large health care ecosystems,” he said in early 2018 just before starting his term as NACDS chairman. “Patients will be enrolled in a self-contained vertically integrated program or health care system that monitors and controls every aspect of their medical care. The access to doctors, specialists, procedures, where and how your scripts get filled will be dictated by one self-contained entity. In my view, that is what health care is going to look like in five to 10 years. Everybody is going to belong to a very large integrated health care ecosystem. We are getting a glimpse of the future of health care today as we witness the rapid consolidation within the health care industry. I believe this will lead to better outcomes and improve patient care. This type of a health ecosystem produces a more efficient model from record keeping to communication between all the professionals or points of contact with a patient.”