Ohio university to build retail specialty pharmacy

The new retail specialty pharmacy will open next summer in the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (pictured here). Image courtesy of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, is building a $962,000 retail specialty pharmacy, according to Columbus Business First.

The 3,600-square-feet pharmacy will be built inside the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. It will primarily distribute hepatitis C treatments, oral chemotherapy, and other drugs for outpatient care.

A new era in specialty pharmacy

“Given the increasing complexity and significantly growing number of specialty oral and self-administered pharmaceuticals available for cancer and non-cancer indications, we needed to ensure appropriate access and education for our outpatients,” Jeff Walker, senior executive business director for James Cancer Hospital, told Columbus Business First. “Most large academic cancer hospitals and medical centers now have specialty retail pharmacies.”

There is a Walgreen Co. store inside OSU University Hospital for routine prescriptions. The new specialty pharmacy is expected to open in the summer of 2016.

OSU Wexner Medical Center also opened an outpatient specialty pharmacy last year inside an administrative building outside the hospital.

A spokesperson for the hospital did not return calls from Drug Topics.