Mixing It Up
“I saw an opportunity,” Wade says, noting that the prospect of meeting the needs of a minute niche by starting something with his own unique vision was his driving force. It would be risky because not only would he, a non-pharmacist (Wade graduated from UCLA with a degree in international economics with a focus on Germany), be starting a highly specialized pharmacy, but his entire operation would center on a niche so specific, few entrepreneurs were lining up behind the starting gate. His brain-child would focus on equine compounds, hundreds of formulations created explicitly for use on horses, and his specialty pharmacy would be doing most of its business out-of-state.
Although he was confident, he wasn’t without his doubts. “I remember thinking, ‘Is this the dumbest idea of all time?’ ” Wade recalls, smiling as he thought back on the impetus behind the start of Precision Pharmacy. But he had a plan and a bit of working knowledge about the compounding pharmacy business (having worked at another local compounding pharmacy for a year before venturing out on his own), so it was off to the races.
It was a calculated risk, says Wade, but one he almost missed completely. It wasn’t easy to leave a paying job to start something that may or may not work. And he already had a taste of what life was like without any viable means of support.
“After I graduated from UCLA, I used all the money I got from relatives at graduation to go backpacking across Europe. It wasn’t until I was heading back to the States that I realized that I had no home, no car, no job, and no money,” he explains, laughing at the memory.
After crashing at a friend’s house in southern California for a while, he found out about a marketing job opening at a pharmacy in Bakersfield. “I’d grown up in Bakersfield (a fifth-generation Bakersfield resident, as a matter of fact!), went to BC before heading down to UCLA, still had family here, and was happy to come back home.”
So back to the Golden Empire he headed in 2005 and hit the streets of Bakersfield as a compound pharmacy marketing executive.
It wasn’t long before Patrick noticed veterinarians were calling and asking for compounds on a fairly regular basis. He saw his golden opportunity almost immediately and began to formulate a plan for his own foray into the pharmaceutical compounding business.
“I teamed up with the manager (Bart Tipton) of the pharmacy I was working at, and we hit the ground running,” Wade says, adding that he has since bought out Tipton’s interest in Precision Pharmacy.
They started operations in 2006, and getting out of the gate was no walk in the park. Financing was tricky. Wade had to pour what little savings he had into the venture, borrow money from his mom and a work-out partner, and place a hefty bet that he would be able to pay the money back in a reasonable amount of time.
Financing the business was hard enough, but Wade soon found out that financial risks were always going to be a part of the entrepreneurial world. Having to deal with the monetary details of operations can be tricky and humbling, as Wade soon found out.
He remembers one of his most distressing moments of panic. “I never had, nor have I since, felt as completely humbled as the day the bank called me to tell me that I didn’t have enough money to cover the payroll that was coming up in the next few days.
“I had failed to take into account the lag time in accounts receivable. You see, I had to pay for all the compounding products before they would ship, but payment for the medications we made from those compounds would take several weeks. I was literally out of money, so I had to go to the bank with my tail between my legs, hand over a fist full of credit cards, tell them, ‘OK, try putting $500 on this one and $500 on that one’ until I could come up with enough money on credit to meet payroll. I had to max out five credit cards. That was the lowest of the lows.”
It was definitely an “uh-oh” moment, but Wade did what any true entrepreneur would do: take on the financial risk himself. Precision Pharmacy not only stayed in business and grew from 5 employees to 35; it’s become a national leader in the equine medication compounding business.
“We’re one of the biggest in the country,” Wade says, proudly gesturing to the wall in his office covered with business licenses from states across the nation. Although Precision Pharmacy does service local veterinarians and horse owners, most orders come from states like Kentucky and Pennsylvania, where the big horse ranches are.
“Nothing we make is manufactured by any big pharmaceutical companies. Even though we receive orders from vets who are treating thousands of horses, it’s just not financially feasible for the big pharmaceutical companies to make these kinds of compounds because each order is so unique.”
And every order is an “emergency,” Wade adds. “Vets are treating viruses, exhaustion, ovulation, mares that are folding, nursing, or weaning and they need the medications ASAP. Practically every order is followed by ASAP.
“The gap we fill is huge. We compound a huge swath of antibiotics, de-wormers, anti-inflammatories for anything from polo ponies and $200,000 race horses to backyard horses.”
And they have filled prescriptions for some pretty famous names in horse-racing circles. “Although I can’t give out any names because horses are protected by the same medical privacy laws that people are, we’ve compounded medications for a horse that not only won the Kentucky Derby, the horse won another of the Triple Crown Races, too,” Wade says, explaining that the Triple Crown Races are a big thing in horse racing, and that no horse has won all three since the ‘70s. He added the vet ordered a specific mixture of vitamins that treated the horse for exhaustion so the horse could run in another race after winning the Derby.
Walking around Precision Pharmacy’s 3,000 square foot facility and you quickly understand why Wade is so willing to take on his next huge risk: moving to a 10,000 square foot plant. Every inch of the pharmacy’s current office is taken up by boxes, sterilizing equipment, compounding products, bottles, syringes, and anything else you would find in a compounding pharmacy. A pleasant, sweet-smelling scent wafts through the air; the aroma of apples mixed with peppermint. “You have to flavor the medications or the horse will refuse it or just spit it out, just like a human would,” Wade explains.
Four or so pharmacists (the number of pharmacists on staff fluctuates, depending on demand) and 30-something other employees work to create, sterilize, and ship Precision Pharmacy products. When going through the mixing areas, Wade explains the process is “pretty similar to cooking. You’ll see mixtures boiling, stirring, simmering, just like you would in a kitchen.”
And precision is in the pharmacy’s name for a reason. “It’s so important that we check, double check, and test our compounds before they go out,” Wade emphasizes. “Not only would I never forgive myself if we hurt even one animal by shipping something sub-standard, but we would be wiped out of business overnight.”
Precision reduces the risk of improper formulations or contamination by making sure that prescriptions are checked by different sets of eyes, medical containers are sterilized to the nth degree, and samples of each batch are tested before they are sent out, he says.
“Everyone who works here is in this together, so we do whatever we need to do to make sure our medications are top-notch, and that we’re meeting or exceeding regulations,” Wade says, proudly adding that he hired the right people for his Precision team.
“I appreciate their hard work so much and I try to make this a fun place to work. Every six months or so we do something fun, like go to a big race or play laser tag. I’ve also included an employee break room in our new facility that is pretty much like a studio apartment.”
Looking toward the future, Wade sees regulatory issues posing a risk to Precision’s local growth. “The state [of California] is a pretty hard state to do business in. They don’t quite know what to do with us, so they regulate us like they would a pharmacy for humans. We have to use a certain font and size to type instructions on each prescription and we have to put the horse’s name on it, as though the horse is going to take the medicine himself. It’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
But Wade isn’t really that worried. He’s planning to stick it out for the long term; and if that means he has to pony up to meet payroll, expand, or meet regulations, so be it. After all, most true entrepreneurs have to put the cart before the horse every once in a while.
Written by Tracie Grimes
Precision Pharmacy, a locally-grown specialty pharmacy, has beaten the odds and turned what could have been just a sleepy little Bakersfield business into a leader of the medical compounding (preparing, mixing, assembling, packaging, or labeling of a drug or device according to a doctor’s specifications to meet a patient needs) industry. And Patrick Wade couldn’t be happier that the leap of faith he took in 2006, when he acted on his “ah-ha moment,” turned into a kind of Cinderella story.“I saw an opportunity,” Wade says, noting that the prospect of meeting the needs of a minute niche by starting something with his own unique vision was his driving force. It would be risky because not only would he, a non-pharmacist (Wade graduated from UCLA with a degree in international economics with a focus on Germany), be starting a highly specialized pharmacy, but his entire operation would center on a niche so specific, few entrepreneurs were lining up behind the starting gate. His brain-child would focus on equine compounds, hundreds of formulations created explicitly for use on horses, and his specialty pharmacy would be doing most of its business out-of-state.
Although he was confident, he wasn’t without his doubts. “I remember thinking, ‘Is this the dumbest idea of all time?’ ” Wade recalls, smiling as he thought back on the impetus behind the start of Precision Pharmacy. But he had a plan and a bit of working knowledge about the compounding pharmacy business (having worked at another local compounding pharmacy for a year before venturing out on his own), so it was off to the races.
It was a calculated risk, says Wade, but one he almost missed completely. It wasn’t easy to leave a paying job to start something that may or may not work. And he already had a taste of what life was like without any viable means of support.
“After I graduated from UCLA, I used all the money I got from relatives at graduation to go backpacking across Europe. It wasn’t until I was heading back to the States that I realized that I had no home, no car, no job, and no money,” he explains, laughing at the memory.
After crashing at a friend’s house in southern California for a while, he found out about a marketing job opening at a pharmacy in Bakersfield. “I’d grown up in Bakersfield (a fifth-generation Bakersfield resident, as a matter of fact!), went to BC before heading down to UCLA, still had family here, and was happy to come back home.”
So back to the Golden Empire he headed in 2005 and hit the streets of Bakersfield as a compound pharmacy marketing executive.
It wasn’t long before Patrick noticed veterinarians were calling and asking for compounds on a fairly regular basis. He saw his golden opportunity almost immediately and began to formulate a plan for his own foray into the pharmaceutical compounding business.
“I teamed up with the manager (Bart Tipton) of the pharmacy I was working at, and we hit the ground running,” Wade says, adding that he has since bought out Tipton’s interest in Precision Pharmacy.
They started operations in 2006, and getting out of the gate was no walk in the park. Financing was tricky. Wade had to pour what little savings he had into the venture, borrow money from his mom and a work-out partner, and place a hefty bet that he would be able to pay the money back in a reasonable amount of time.
Financing the business was hard enough, but Wade soon found out that financial risks were always going to be a part of the entrepreneurial world. Having to deal with the monetary details of operations can be tricky and humbling, as Wade soon found out.
He remembers one of his most distressing moments of panic. “I never had, nor have I since, felt as completely humbled as the day the bank called me to tell me that I didn’t have enough money to cover the payroll that was coming up in the next few days.
“I had failed to take into account the lag time in accounts receivable. You see, I had to pay for all the compounding products before they would ship, but payment for the medications we made from those compounds would take several weeks. I was literally out of money, so I had to go to the bank with my tail between my legs, hand over a fist full of credit cards, tell them, ‘OK, try putting $500 on this one and $500 on that one’ until I could come up with enough money on credit to meet payroll. I had to max out five credit cards. That was the lowest of the lows.”
It was definitely an “uh-oh” moment, but Wade did what any true entrepreneur would do: take on the financial risk himself. Precision Pharmacy not only stayed in business and grew from 5 employees to 35; it’s become a national leader in the equine medication compounding business.
“We’re one of the biggest in the country,” Wade says, proudly gesturing to the wall in his office covered with business licenses from states across the nation. Although Precision Pharmacy does service local veterinarians and horse owners, most orders come from states like Kentucky and Pennsylvania, where the big horse ranches are.
“Nothing we make is manufactured by any big pharmaceutical companies. Even though we receive orders from vets who are treating thousands of horses, it’s just not financially feasible for the big pharmaceutical companies to make these kinds of compounds because each order is so unique.”
And every order is an “emergency,” Wade adds. “Vets are treating viruses, exhaustion, ovulation, mares that are folding, nursing, or weaning and they need the medications ASAP. Practically every order is followed by ASAP.
“The gap we fill is huge. We compound a huge swath of antibiotics, de-wormers, anti-inflammatories for anything from polo ponies and $200,000 race horses to backyard horses.”
And they have filled prescriptions for some pretty famous names in horse-racing circles. “Although I can’t give out any names because horses are protected by the same medical privacy laws that people are, we’ve compounded medications for a horse that not only won the Kentucky Derby, the horse won another of the Triple Crown Races, too,” Wade says, explaining that the Triple Crown Races are a big thing in horse racing, and that no horse has won all three since the ‘70s. He added the vet ordered a specific mixture of vitamins that treated the horse for exhaustion so the horse could run in another race after winning the Derby.
Walking around Precision Pharmacy’s 3,000 square foot facility and you quickly understand why Wade is so willing to take on his next huge risk: moving to a 10,000 square foot plant. Every inch of the pharmacy’s current office is taken up by boxes, sterilizing equipment, compounding products, bottles, syringes, and anything else you would find in a compounding pharmacy. A pleasant, sweet-smelling scent wafts through the air; the aroma of apples mixed with peppermint. “You have to flavor the medications or the horse will refuse it or just spit it out, just like a human would,” Wade explains.
Four or so pharmacists (the number of pharmacists on staff fluctuates, depending on demand) and 30-something other employees work to create, sterilize, and ship Precision Pharmacy products. When going through the mixing areas, Wade explains the process is “pretty similar to cooking. You’ll see mixtures boiling, stirring, simmering, just like you would in a kitchen.”
And precision is in the pharmacy’s name for a reason. “It’s so important that we check, double check, and test our compounds before they go out,” Wade emphasizes. “Not only would I never forgive myself if we hurt even one animal by shipping something sub-standard, but we would be wiped out of business overnight.”
Precision reduces the risk of improper formulations or contamination by making sure that prescriptions are checked by different sets of eyes, medical containers are sterilized to the nth degree, and samples of each batch are tested before they are sent out, he says.
“Everyone who works here is in this together, so we do whatever we need to do to make sure our medications are top-notch, and that we’re meeting or exceeding regulations,” Wade says, proudly adding that he hired the right people for his Precision team.
“I appreciate their hard work so much and I try to make this a fun place to work. Every six months or so we do something fun, like go to a big race or play laser tag. I’ve also included an employee break room in our new facility that is pretty much like a studio apartment.”
Looking toward the future, Wade sees regulatory issues posing a risk to Precision’s local growth. “The state [of California] is a pretty hard state to do business in. They don’t quite know what to do with us, so they regulate us like they would a pharmacy for humans. We have to use a certain font and size to type instructions on each prescription and we have to put the horse’s name on it, as though the horse is going to take the medicine himself. It’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
But Wade isn’t really that worried. He’s planning to stick it out for the long term; and if that means he has to pony up to meet payroll, expand, or meet regulations, so be it. After all, most true entrepreneurs have to put the cart before the horse every once in a while.
Article appeared in Bakerfield Magazine 29-1 Issue - April 2012
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