What Options Do Retail Pharmacies Have to Become Profitable?

Jun 26
Jun 26, 2025

The retail pharmacy space is facing a raft of challenges that are resulting in closures across the industry. From deflating generic prices to competition from discount cards and front-end competition, these pharmacies are struggling to succeed between the larger pressure from wholesalers and PBMs. Ultimately, retail pharmacies that are not affiliated with a PBM or have access to 340B pricing have very few options to become profitable.

Adam Fein, Ph.D., president of Drug Channels Institute, clarified that “retail pharmacy” refers to community retail pharmacy and not mail pharmacy: chain drugstores, independent pharmacies and pharmacies inside mass merchants and supermarkets. In 2024, approximately 91% of all 30-day equivalent prescriptions — 6.8 billion of them — went through a community retail pharmacy, but these entities received only 62% of the prescription dispensing revenues, he explained during a June 20 webinar titled What’s Next for Retail Pharmacy: Data, Debate, and Disruption.
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Angela Maas

Angela has an extensive background of editing, reporting and writing for trade and consumer publications. She has written Radar on Specialty Pharmacy since she joined AIS Health in 2005 and has broad knowledge of the various issues at play within the space. She also has written for Spotlight on Market Access since its 2017 launch. Before joining AIS Health, she was managing editor at Employee Benefit News and Employee Benefit News Canada and managing editor at Hem Aware (a hemophilia publication), Lupus Living and Momentum (a multiple sclerosis publication). She has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in British literature from Arizona State University.