SOP Students Showcase Skills to “Capture the Growing Pharmacy Market”

New case competition sponsored by Target awards scholarships to forward-thinking students at the School of Pharmacy.

By Malissa Carroll
April 18, 2013

Third-year student pharmacists Christopher Min, Nirvana Maharaj, Alice Lee, and Andrew Cho hit the “bullseye” and were named winners of the first-ever Target Case Competition at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy on April 1. Their presentation entitled “Target: Where Technology Meets OTCs” set them apart from 12 competing teams and earned each student a $1,000 scholarship.

“The pharmaceutical industry has become increasingly competitive as a result of continued consolidation within the drugstore industry, increased mail order pharmacy business, the Medicare program, and drug importation,” says Casey Charboneau, PharmD ’05, pharmacy business partner at Target. “Our Case Competition, titled ‘Capturing the Growing Pharmacy Market,’ was designed to challenge pharmacy students to think about ways in which our pharmacy can differentiate itself from increased competition in the industry.”

According to the US Census, 13 percent of the population is over 65. In 2050, the number of Americans aged 65 and older is estimated to reach 88.5 million. Because older adults often experience more chronic health conditions that require prescription drug treatment, an opportunity exists for retail pharmacies, including Target Pharmacy, the competition’s sponsor, to implement new initiatives aimed at these consumers.

First-, second-, third-, and fourth-year pharmacy students were invited to participate in the competition, which was organized by the School’s Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Society (PLS). Nathan Darling, a second-year student pharmacist and PLS member, served as the primary liaison between Target and the School of the Pharmacy.

“Our School is very clinically focused, but this competition was a bit outside the clinical realm. It was a community-based project with a strong retail component,” says Darling. “The reason we selected this particular case was to allow students from every year to compete on even terms. The judges were managers from Target, which helped students gain exposure for themselves and interact with individuals who could be responsible for hiring them in the future.”

The competition was formally introduced to students at a kick-off event in February. Students worked in four-person teams to develop a strategic plan that would help Target gain a sustainable competitive advantage in pharmacy. Each team delivered a 10-minute presentation that addressed Target’s current situation in the pharmaceutical market as well as how to implement their proposed idea.

Entitled “Target: Where Technology Meets OTCs,” the winning presentation delivered by Min, Maharaj, Lee, and Cho set Target Pharmacy apart from other retail pharmacies through the roll-out of a unique technology program called “OTeCh,” which would help customers select the best over-the-counter product based on their individual needs. Every Target Pharmacy would feature a kiosk with an iPad equipped with the “OTeCh” program that would allow customers to input information about themselves and their symptoms. The program would use the information provided to generate personalized recommendations on over-the-counter products that could be used to treat the individual’s current symptoms. It would also recommend that the customer speak with a Target pharmacist about their medications or if they had additional questions.

“Our team really enjoyed working on this project,” said Cho. “Over-the-counter products provide the largest profit margin for pharmacies, so we decided to use technology to attract customers to the innovative solutions that Target offers. We researched the company’s business model and culture to tailor our solution to its specific needs.”

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