Cincinnati-piloted Equity Rx program expands statewide

By: Lara Schwartz

Full Article Credits to the Cincinnati Business Courier

A Cincinnati-piloted pharmacy program is gearing up to expand statewide, and it could help open up medication access across Ohio.

Equity Rx, a program formed through collaboration from St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy, the Charitable Healthcare Network and Cardinal Health Foundation, is expanding across Ohio, while also establishing a first-of-its-kind drug repository in Cincinnati.

The program, which launched in Cincinnati in 2023 at St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy with an investment of $500,000 from Cardinal Health Foundation, works to increase access to medications and a pharmacist for those in need.

St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy serves as a hub, connected to free clinics and other pharmacies across the region, filling prescriptions for underserved populations for free. The pharmacy will finish 2025 with a total of 102,000 prescriptions filled with more than 27,000 filled through the Equity Rx program and sent to partnered clinics.

Cardinal Health, a global manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceuticals and more, has now invested a total of $5 million into the Equity Rx program through the Cardinal Health Foundation.

The program is now expanding across the state starting in the northeast.

“This was more than just getting access to the medications, this was about improving health care,” Jason Koma, executive director for the Charitable Healthcare Network, told me. “That was done by medications physically, but more importantly it was rounding out the care team so that there was a pharmacist involved.”

The partners are aiming to introduce the hub and spoke model piloted at St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy to other regions across the state. “All free clinics should have a relationship with a charitable pharmacy, and that’s what we’re hoping to see this network become,” Rusty Curington, director of pharmacy at St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy, said.

Simultaneously, St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy is expanding in Cincinnati to serve as Ohio’s first statewide prescription drug repository and distribution center that will receive, inventory, catalog and redistribute donated medications to Charitable Healthcare Network organizations at no cost.

These medications are prescriptions that would otherwise be destroyed or left unused, which is a financial loss within the health care delivery system, according to Koma.

The repository, created in partnership with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, will be fully operational by 2027.

To allow for this expansion, St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy is expanding its Milford location. Currently, the facility spans 3,000 square feet of pharmacy space. The expansion will add an additional 3,600 square feet of warehouse space to process incoming medications.

“There’s a community service that happens not just by giving lifesaving medicine to people but by getting sometimes dangerous medicine out of people’s homes,” Curington said. “We do believe it’s a game changer for the state and especially the people that we serve.”

The partners are aiming to have a fully operational showroom that distributes medications across the state to one-third of Charitable Healthcare Network’s free providers in 15 to 18 months.

Sharonville-based Haglage Construction is handling the build out.

“No one is doing what we’re doing anywhere in the country,” Koma said. “There are other states that have state repositories that have a little bit of a different model here and there, but nobody is combining the improved patient care of the hub and spoke clinical model with the access to medications specifically aimed at the safety net.”

The repository will receive donations from individuals, nursing homes and long-term care facilities. The partners are also launching an electronic donation system Oct. 1 that will allow donations from anywhere in the country.

Additional partners in establishing the repository include Covington-based Zion Solutions Group, which is providing a machine that will automate the sorting process, and Kroger Health, which has donated shelving and cabinetry.

“The beauty is that this work started in Cincinnati and is really spreading to a statewide effort through (Charitable Healthcare Network). For us, it really is becoming a national model,” Jessie Cannon, president of Cardinal Health Foundation, said.

Through a partnership with the National Association of Charitable Pharmacies, the partners plan to expand the hub and spoke model created by Equity Rx to Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Illinois over the course of the next two years.

“We’re revolutionizing the way people receive lifesaving medications for better, more optimal health while at the same time saving the health care delivery system lots of money,” Koma said.

St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy has operated in Cincinnati for 19 years. It currently has three locations in the region.