UB Team Reaches Finals of Pharmacy Competition

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A team from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of three finalists in the National Community Pharmacists Association's Pruitt-Schutte Student Business Plan Competition. 

Teams from Mercer University of Georgia and the University of the Pacific will join the UB team in the competition, to be held during the 107th NCPA Annual Convention and Trade Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Oct. 15-19.

The UB team members are Kevin DiGiacomo of Cheektowaga, Evan Fleishman of Albany, Charley Greenberg of Amherst and Mike Spino of South Wales.

The first national competition of its kind, the event is named for two champions of independent pharmacy ownership and practice, the late Neil Pruitt, Sr., and H. Joseph Schutte. The Pruitt and Schutte families support the contest along with Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and the NCPA Foundation.  The judges include representatives from the NCPA as well as from pharmacies and drug companies across the nation.

Any school with an NCPA student chapter is eligible for the competition, in which each team writes a business plan to purchase an existing pharmacy or to develop a new pharmacy that provides unique patient care, according to Anne Corbett, NCPA assistant director of student affairs. The NCPA received 27 entries from pharmacy schools across the country this year, from which judges chose the top three teams.

The winning team will receive $3,000 for its NCPA student chapter and $3,000 for its school to promote independent pharmacy practice. Winning team members, the team advisor and their dean will also have travel, lodging and registration costs paid to attend the NCPA 2006 Multiple Locations Pharmacy Conference in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, next February.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. UB's more than 27,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. The university offers the only degrees in pharmacy, law and architecture in the SUNY system, and is the home of the only comprehensive public school of engineering and only school of informatics in New York State.

The National Community Pharmacists Association represents the nation's community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 24,000 pharmacies.  The nation's independent pharmacies, independent pharmacy franchises, and independent chains represent an $84 billion marketplace, dispensing nearly half of the nation's retail prescription medicines.