KU News Release

KU team is finalist in national pharmacy business plan contest

LAWRENCE — A business plan developed by two University of Kansas pharmacy students is one of three finalists in the National Community Pharmacy Association Pruitt-Schutte Student Business Plan Competition.

Eric Gourley, Lebo, and Melissa Rufenacht, Ness City, will compete for $12,000 in prizes by presenting their plan to a panel of judges and a live audience at the association’s 110th annual conference to be held Oct. 11-15 in Tampa, Fla.

Both students are in the last year of KU’s six-year doctor of pharmacy professional degree program. Gourley is the son of Doyle and Lori Gourley and a graduate of Lebo High School. Rufenacht, a graduate of Ness City High School, is the daughter of Benjie and Randie Rufenacht.

Finalists and advisers will receive complimentary registration, travel and lodging to the Tampa conference.

After the presentations in Tampa have been evaluated and scored, the winning team will receive $3,000 for its National Community Pharmacy Association student chapter and $3,000 in the dean’s name to promote independent pharmacy at the school. The second-place winner gets $2,000 for the chapter and $2,000 for the school; third place earns $1,000 for each. Ken Audus is dean of KU’s School of Pharmacy. Gene Hotchkiss, associate dean for administration, and Dennis Grauer, associate professor and interim chair of pharmacy practice, are co-advisers to the KU chapter.

Begun in 2004, the Pruitt-Schutte Student Business Plan Competition is the first of its kind in the pharmacy profession. The goal is to motivate pharmacy students to create the blueprint necessary to buy an existing independent community pharmacy or to develop a new pharmacy.

“The competition provides pharmacy students with hands-on experience creating successful business plans for independent community pharmacy ownership where a premium is placed on getting valuable feedback from pharmacy professionals,” said Stephen L. Giroux, president of the National Community Pharmacy Association. “As a result, the National Community Pharmacy Association is ensuring tomorrow’s independent community pharmacy owners have a road map to a brighter future. Since the contest’s inception several participants have become successful owners, which we expect to continue in the future.”

The Gourley-Rufenacht team is the second KU team to reach the finals since the competition began. In 2004, KU student Robert Wenzl won third place for his business plan to purchase a pharmacy from a KU alumnus. When Wenzl received his doctor of pharmacy degree in spring 2005, he used that plan to buy an independent pharmacy from KU pharmacy alumnus David Rankin. Within seven months of graduation, Wenzl became the owner of Wenzl Drug, which he operates in Phillipsburg.

This year’s competition drew entries from 30 schools and colleges of pharmacy. The top 10 winners, including top three finalists, were announced July 20 at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy annual convention in Chicago.

The National Community Pharmacists Association, founded in 1898, represents the nation’s community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 23,000 pharmacies. The nation’s independent pharmacies, independent pharmacy franchises and independent chains dispense nearly half of the nation’s retail prescription medicines.

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