The Girls Are Back: One Pharmacist’s Journey to Save His Community Pharmacy

“Ever since I was a child,” Mayank Amin, PharmD, RPh, MBA, owner and chief patient advocate of Skippack Pharmacy, recalls, “I always wanted to do something that could make a big impact in the lives of those around me.”

This wish would guide his career.

After graduating from pharmacy school, Amin held various non-traditional pharmacy roles, including acting as a stand-in for a Hollywood film and directing a wedding planning company. But while exploring these passions, and working part-time at Walgreens, Amin learned about an independent pharmacy that had been shuttered in his community.

“I saw that there were seniors absolutely destroyed by this. It was almost like I was watching a funeral,” says Amin. “Some of these people might have come to this pharmacy on their horse 50 years ago. And here they were sitting in [the pharmacy’s] parking lot, all looking and talking, saying, ‘What actually happened here? How did we lose something that means so much to us?’”

Moved by the devastation, Amin took it upon himself to reopen Skippack Pharmacy to the community—with a focus on creating a unique patient experience.

“[I ended up hiring some] of the ladies that had been working here for 50 years, who were mostly all 75 plus years old at the time,” says Amin. “I rented a billboard down the street from the pharmacy, and the billboard said, ‘The Girls Are Back,’ with a picture of the 3 women who were the original employees…the town got very excited that the girls were back.”

However, Amin soon discovered the challenges of running an independent pharmacy—the same that have led to countless closures in recent years. Rather than let these challenges defeat him—“I didn’t want to be a stat,” he says—he found creative solutions to navigate the reimbursement system and focused on filling gaps in service that larger chains couldn’t.

In part 1 of the latest episode of Over the Counter, Amin shares his experiences transforming Skippack Pharmacy into a thriving community hub, learnings from his professional journey, the challenges of independent pharmacy ownership, and the beginning of the Superman Pharmacist.

Check out part 1 of our conversation with Amin available on Spotify.

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