UK has installed a new location for students to fulfill their pharmaceutical needs called the UK Apothecary.

The UK Apothecary is located on the ground floor of the Gatton Student Center, right across from the Cats Den. The location opened Oct. 3 and is open 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on weekdays.

“This pharmacy is open to everyone now,” Erin Poteet, the director of the UK Apothecary, said. “There’s no one excluded, so we can fill prescriptions for the public, employees, campus, just really anyone.”

Often, students have their prescriptions filled at University Health Services, which is around a 20 minute walk for students located on North Campus. The UK Apothecary allows students more access for prescriptions, especially if they do not have a car.

“You don’t have to go drive to an urgent care center and then come back and find a pharmacy,” Poteet said. “We’re hoping to be able to handle a lot of those everyday ailments right here.”

Poteet said all students who have seen a UK Student Health doctor have access to about five free antibiotics, as well as some over the counter medication like Tylenol or Ibuprofen.

“For employees, if you have seen a UK provider and you have UK insurance, you can get up to half off copays, up to a $60 maximum,” Poteet said.

The UK Apothecary is set up by law to dispense the lowest priced generic product to its customers, unless the customer or doctor specifies differently.

The vision of the UK Apothecary is to be more of a one stop shop for students. They carry sanitary products, as well as sexual health products avaliable for purchase at their storefront.

The UK Apothecary is meant to act as more than a pharmacy.

“We’re hoping to have some vending machine options outside for after hours,” Poteet said. “So that (students) can get common things that (they) might need when we’re not open.”

Ami Piccirilli, the communications director for UK Pharmacy Services, told the Kernel in an email such services may or may not be coming down the road in order to prevent any kind of confusion.

“We want to be the first one to do all the new innovative things that the pharmacy is trying to do,” Poteet said.

Soon, the UK Apothecary will be able to offer COVID-19 vaccinations. It will also be doing Kentucky Board of Pharmacy approved protocols, including strep, COVID-19 and flu tests, as well as diabetes strip tests.

Poteet said she hopes that the Apothecary expands to UTI testing and lots of other things.

“As we get ready to roll out more of these protocols, you’re likely to see this be one of the first sites that’s(offering UTI testing),” Poteet said.

Daniel Moore was a UK staff pharmacist until he was recently promoted as the manager of UK Apothecary.

“The protocols are kind of where the future of pharmacy is going,” Moore said. “I mean, not just standing there dispensing medications, but doing the strep and flu testing. So it’s kind of expanding our role as pharmacists, and we’re going to really be rolling those out here, testing them, and bringing (them) into all the other pharmacies, the retail pharmacies here at UK.”

Moore also believes that the UK Apothecary could broaden its services to delivery as well. He said that the Apothecary could use lockers, office delivery and even Starship robots in the future.

“That’s down the road of where we wanted to go again, not right now,” Moore said. “That’s about rules and regulations of trying to get that changed, but who knows what happens in the future?”