Mapped: America’s pharmacy deserts, where hundreds of thousands can’t get life-saving drugs. Is YOUR area affected?
Massive pharmacy closures across the United States are leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without access to life-saving medications and basic medical care, a new analysis shows.
New national data from two industry groups shows that western states like Alaska and California have about 12 pharmacies per 100,000 residents, while eastern and southern states like New York and West Virginia have nearly 30 drugstores per 100,000 residents.
Experts blame the increasing popularity of online drug services and financial problems for many closures of brick-and-mortar operations.
However, closing pharmacies has more consequences than just prescriptions. Many Americans rely on it for essential health care services such as routine vaccinations and diabetes monitoring.
Conducted by Associated Press, the analysis looked at pharmacy locations down to zip code level.
It found that about two-thirds of pharmacies in states with limited access were owned by large corporate chains, while independently owned pharmacies were more common in cities with larger populations.
Based on data from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and the American Community Survey, western states have some of the fewest locations per 100,000 residents, including Alaska, Oregon and California.
The analysis also found that eastern and southern states had the most access, with West Virginia, New York and Arkansas among the top.
Closures are increasing among major pharmaceutical chains, with major players such as CVS and Rite Aid closing hundreds of locations.
According to CVS, 85 percent of Americans live within five miles of one of its pharmacies, of which the company has more than 9,000 locations.
The stores not only allow customers to purchase medications and fill their prescriptions, but some locations also offer vaccinations and basic medical care.
Dr. Prakash Patel, a pharmacist who owns Bert’s Pharmacy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, told AP that the pharmacy is sometimes a sick customer’s “first stop.”
He said: ‘There is no easy access to a doctor’s surgery. You need an appointment. They have limited opening hours. So when a child or adult – anyone is sick – where does he or she go first? To the pharmacy.’
Additionally, Megan Undeberg, a community pharmacy expert at Washington State University, said pharmacists in rural drugstores often see and care for more people than doctors, meaning they could potentially spot signs of dangerous medical conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
She told the publication: “You’re the smoking cessation counselor, you’re the suicide prevention counselor. You know just about everything about everyone, but it’s confidential.’
In November, CVS announced it had closed 564 of the 900 locations it planned to close.
Another pharmacy giant, Rite Aid, has more than 1,700 locations in 16 states, employs more than 6,000 pharmacists and provides pharmacy, vaccination and basic medical care services.
In October, Rite Aid announced that as part of its bankruptcy process, it planned to close hundreds of underperforming stores.
Walgreens also offers similar services at its stores and pharmacies in Duane Reade, which it acquired in 2010.
Last summer, the company announced that it planned to close about 150 locations in the U.S., as well as 300 stores in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Dima Qato, an associate professor at the University of Southern California who studies pharmacy access, told AP When companies want to close stores, they often target lower-income and minority neighborhoods.
Dr. Qato, a pharmacist, added: ‘In these neighborhoods they often close, regardless of whether or not there is another pharmacy nearby.
More than 7,000 pharmacies have closed since 2019, according to additional data, but the researcher behind it, Lucas Berenbrok of the University of Pittsburgh, said that number is “conservative.”
Of these, about half were independent drugstores.
Pharmacies, both chain and independent, often close because they are no longer profitable, underperform or the population in the area is shrinking.
However, rampant theft and crime have also played a more recent role in the closures.
In September 2023, a CVS store manager was shot and killed by a customer accused of shoplifting in Arizona, and photos from drugstores in major cities like Washington, D.C., and New York show bare shelves after people looted merchandise.
CapitalOne Research estimated that stores lost nearly $87 billion to shoplifting in 2022 and expects this to cost businesses more than $115 billion by 2025.