The right prescription for growing a retail operation?

A decision by a major drug manufacturer to cut production of a popular flu medicine is nothing to sneeze at for an expanding local pharmacy.

Rx3 Compounding Pharmacy,  which has a new 4,500-square-foot store and lab/retail store on Ironbridge Road in Chester, is filling prescriptions for the liquid version of Tamiflu, a popular treatment for people who catch the flu.

Only that form of the medicine is no longer widely available.

“Roche decided six months ago to discontinue manufacturing the suspension portion [liquid], but they continue to make the capsules,” explained Chris Currin, who owns and helps run the business with his father, Sonny Currin.

“Some children can’t swallow or take that form,” he said.

Rx3’s niche is that a lot of chain pharmacies can’t take a pill and turn it into liquid form. Rx3 can, and has a certified lab to do that sort of chemical wizardry. The company can also add flavors to make medicine more palatable for kids.

And while the store has seen a nice boost – 25 more customers than usual in one week – about half its revenue comes from concocting prescriptions for area hospitals, notably HCA.

The VCU Health System has a pharmacy school, so they tend to do their own work, Currin said.

But this new opportunity could be tricky to capitalize on, because for Tamiflu to work, it has to be taken within 48 hours of showing symptoms of the flu, Currin said. And that means the challenge is not chemistry, but marketing.

“The main thing we have to do is let people know there’s that option out there,” Currin said.

The company was started in 1995 by the father and son, who are both pharmacists.

The retail side of the business is new for the company, which operated for decades in an industrial park. In May it opened in a $2 million building that now has a doctor on one side and the pharmacy in the middle.

The company has 15 employees.

Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to Editor@richmondbizsense.com.