‘Making medicine more personal,’ UF alumni launch an independent pharmacy in Jacksonville
As the University of Florida continues to expand its Jacksonville footprint, two entrepreneurial alumni are bringing personalized health care and compassion to the city’s residents.
Kyle Davis and Max McDaniel opened East Coast Compounding & Pharmacy in 2021 — the same year they graduated from the UF College of Pharmacy with Pharm.D. degrees — and the independent business is now well-known in the community for its affordability and accessibility.
From graduation to business ownership
For Davis and McDaniel, balancing their final year of studies with building a brand-new pharmacy was a tall order, and the opportunity came about somewhat unexpectedly.
McDaniel had already worked for an independent compounding pharmacy as a student and, during his final year of school, the owner died. McDaniel offered his help while the owner’s wife figured out next steps, enlisting his friend and classmate Davis to co-manage the business. When external factors caused the pharmacy to shutter its doors, McDaniel and Davis decided they would build something new, all on their own, in the San Marco neighborhood in January 2021.
“We managed to open East Coast Compounding right around the time that the other pharmacy was closing, and we benefited from some of those patients choosing to continue to do business with us,” McDaniel said. “Our goal was to bring independent pharmacy into more of a modern era, which is why we built a state-of-the-art lab and kept a modern feel throughout. The grind of building something from the ground up is something I will always be proud of.”
Filling a need
Emulating the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, East Coast Compounding offers generic drugs at lower prices by removing pharmacy benefit managers and other insurance company representatives from its business model. McDaniel said 90% of the pharmacy’s business comes from drug compounds produced in-house, with the remaining 10% coming from retail prescriptions.
“We want to offer affordable maintenance medication to folks who are willing to pay out of pocket, and in return, we’re able to offer a much better and quicker service than big-box stores,” McDaniel said. “As for the compounding side, we make a variety of products, from sterile injections to hormone creams to oral capsules and anything in-between. Our goal is to offer custom medications tailored to each patient’s unique needs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.”
At East Coast Compounding, transparency is paramount, Davis said, and all employees aim to build a rapport of trust and confidence with their customers — even the technicians who would normally work behind the scenes at other pharmacies.
“In the past, compounding was done on the back counter, hidden away from view in the back of the pharmacy. We placed our lab directly at the forefront of the pharmacy for all to see, with a viewing window for patients to watch,” Davis said. “We hoped this would give patients a better understanding of what compounding was and give the compounders a sense of accountability to the patients they’re serving.”
Giving back to the Gator Nation and beyond
McDaniel and Davis count among their ranks several UF pharmacy students, who gain valuable insights while working as interns for East Coast Compounding.
“The future of pharmacy lies within the new minds that come through the program each year,” McDaniel said. “We try to keep an intern from each year of pharmacy school on our team, so they’re able to teach each other and rotate through year after year.”
Working with UF pharmacy students gives Davis the opportunity to reflect on independent pharmacy ownership and to impart key lessons he said every student should hear long before graduation.
“You don’t have to feel ready to be capable. Confidence is built by doing the things that scare you before you feel qualified to do them,” Davis said. “You can’t fall prisoner to impostor syndrome.”
Four years in business have come with their share of challenges and learning opportunities, but there is one phenomenon that occurs each day at East Coast Compounding that reminds Davis and McDaniel why they chose this career path: positive interactions with patients.
“Every time a patient thanks us after getting a compounded medication that they couldn’t get elsewhere, and explains how it has impacted their life in a positive way, it reminds us why compounding exists in the pharmacy world,” Davis said. “The stories that we hear from patients show us that we’re making medicine more personal, more accessible and more powerful for the people who need it most.”