PALM BEACH, Fla. — The value of community pharmacy was the subject of Walgreen Co. president and chief executive officer Greg Wasson’s remarks in his initial address as new chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

The value of community pharmacy was the subject of Walgreen Co. president and chief executive officer Greg Wasson’s remarks in his initial address as new chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

"Our product is an outcome — an improved health outcome — that only a face-to-face encounter with a community pharmacist can accomplish," he asserted at the NACDS Annual Meeting.

Wasson described the operating environment of community pharmacies as one defined by “pushes and pulls,” the former being forces that are influencing the industry to leverage community pharmacy’s value and to not allow it to become commoditized (as pill dispensers) and the latter as those factors that are driving the industry to develop innovative solutions for resolving the nation’s health care crisis.

Also at the meeting, Bob Loeffler, chief administrative officer of H-E-B, reflected on his one-year term as NACDS chairman and heaped praise for the Retail Advisory Board (which advises the NACDS board of directors on industry issues) for its help in advancing NACDS meetings and conferences, including the 2013 debut of the NACDS Total Store Expo.

Loeffler also emphasized the importance of NACDS’ government advocacy work on what he described as the "three legs of the NACDS public policy stool," including Medicare, Medicaid and pharmacy benefit manager issues.