Pharmacist sees bright future for Benevere specialty practice

Despite a turbulent time in the pharmacy industry, Brett Wright said next week is the "perfect time" to open his shop in Collierville.

Wright's Benevere Pharmacy opens Monday in Poplar View Plaza at 1162 W. Poplar.

While a new Walgreens or CVS seems to pop up somewhere every other week in the Memphis market, Benevere hopes to find success in the niches.

Wright has special training in compounding and years of experience with specialty drugs and personal medication management. So while others duke it out in the traditional ring, for him and his specialties, "the time couldn't be better."

"We can hopefully provide a holistic approach for the patient rather than a silo-type therapy, just treating one piece of the disease rather than the whole patient," Wright said.

A compounding physician can custom-make some medications for specific patients, a rare speciality in the United States. The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists represents just more than 2,100 such pharmacies nationally. There are only about five of these pharmacies in the Shelby County area.

Many times, the compounds are made with the mortar and pestle, the symbol most associated with pharmacies. Compounds can be anything from pain creams to medicine hidden in lollipops for kids.

Benevere will also have a private patient consultation room where Wright can discuss patients' current and future medications and how they may work (or not work) together. His work in the specialty pharmacy industry has given him experience with drugs from the cheap and simple to the expensive and complicated, he said.

Issues in the U.S. pharmacy industry were highlighted this week in Washington as the National Community Pharmacists Association wrapped up a three-day conference with a rally urging support for bills that would loosen regulations on independent pharmacies.

Independents and big retailers alike are weighing the future after a court battle allowed the $29 billion merger of Express Scripts and Medco, two of the country's largest pharmacy benefits managers. The merger likely will change how the pharmacy pie is sliced.

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Pharmacist sees bright future for Benevere specialty practice