Step by step
ByWingate pharmacy school expands in WNC
ASHEVILLE — Wingate University plans to expand its doctoral pharmacy program in Western North Carolina to meet a growing need for pharmacists in the mountains.
The Charlotte-based university plans to build or lease a building in the South Asheville area to accommodate 72 students who will be enrolled in the four-year program starting in fall 2011. The school also plans to hire 13 full-time faculty and staff.
I wish Wingate great success with its plans, but not just because we’ll get faster service at the CVS pharmacy counter.
For years, while Research Triangle captured the lion’s share of the state’s pharma and biotech industry jobs, Western North Carolina floundered as its textile and furniture industries withered or went south of the border. Yet, there are a few sparks of a nascent pharma/biotech industry here. PharmAgra Labs and Pisgah Labs in Transylvania County, for example. Gaia Herbs is already firmly established in Brevard. The Bent Creek Institute was established to perform research supporting development of regional nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. (Video on Bent Creek’s mission here.) Thermo Fisher Scientific in Asheville manufactures cold storage equipment and medical centrifuges.
None of the above is a major regional job engine, but collectively their presence is something to build on. In 2002, I spent five months working for Bayer Biologics in Clayton, NC. on a team led by an adjunct professor from the Campbell University School of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. Having Wingate further concentrate such PhD-level talent in WNC can only help in attracting more pharma/biotech sector jobs to our region.
5 Comments
March 27th, 2010 at 11:24 am
I’ve often wondered why County Commission and City Council devote all their efforts, or so it seems to me, to tourism rather than relentlessly pursuing bringing business (other than hotels, pubs, and restaurants) to the area. The Wingate program is a small, good step but still somewhat off the mark.
If the city, and the county, need/want more money, I think good employment opportunities would greatly enhance their tax revenues.
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March 27th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
It was a real team effort between Wingate University and a lot of local leaders, public and private, to welcome this excellent doctoral school of pharmacy to Asheville. Big kudos.
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March 27th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
What’s with the big kudos Gordon? Isn’t kudos sufficiently laudatory? Big kudos is redundant I think, like very unique, or spectacularly awesome. But then awesome is so banal and overused it joins incredible in the sea of gibberish and cliche.
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March 27th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Mr. Sullivan, et al, if my earlier comment reads as snarky to you as it does to me now, I apologize as that was not my intention.
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March 30th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
I can’t comprehend why Wingate is starting another program that will accept 72 students. The pharmacist shortage we all heard about a few years ago is already well on its way to being a surplus thanks to the 25+ pharmacy schools that have sprung up across the country in the past 15 years. I know recent graduates who waited months to get a retail position in WNC. Between the 5 pharmacy schools in Tennessee (one of which is only an hour from Asheville on I-40) and the 3 pharmacy schools in North Carolina, I think we are capable of covering WNC.
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