Women-only pharmacy opens in Vancouver

By Men's Activism News | Source | September 11, 2009

Story here. Excerpt:

'A group in Canada is stretching the limits of niche practice. Lu's Pharmacy, which opened in July in Vancouver, British Columbia, doesn't just focus on women patients; women are the only patients it serves.

"We have never provided services to men," said Caryn Duncan, executive director of the Vancouver Women's Health Collective, which has been dispensing health information and advice to women since 1971. "We don't expect that to change now that we have opened a pharmacy."

Opening a women's pharmacy is not a new idea. This year, students from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy, Buffalo, N.Y., won first place in the National Community Pharmacists Association's Pruitt-Schutte Business Plan Competition. Their business plan for Isabella's Apothecary focused on early intervention and chronic-disease-state management tailored to the needs of women.

"It makes good business sense to focus on women," said Whitcomb Henry, who owns a pharmacy in Seattle, Wash. "Seventy percent of consumers who shop in pharmacies are women. A pharmacy that caters to women is a natural."'

No men have ever tried to fill scripts at Lu's. If a man did ring the doorbell, Duncan said, "I'd be outside having a conversation with him. We are here to support women's health and to focus on women's issues."
...
Thus far, B.C.'s men don't seem bothered by Lu's women-only stance.'