A Prescription for Success

Alumni Jacob Sweet and Daniel Jones are filling community needs with independent pharmacy

By Jeanne M. Hoban

Jacob Sweet, Pharm.D., a 2022 graduate of the NEOMED College of Pharmacy, knew as early as his P1 year that he wanted to be the owner of an independent pharmacy.

By the end of his third year, he and fellow alumnus Daniel Jones, Pharm.D. (‘14), began exploring what it would take to be successful as independent owners. Initially, they thought they would build a shop from the ground up.

Jacob Sweet, Pharm.D., outside the Garrettsville location of Elite Pharmacy

“We talked to another independent pharmacy owner in the area and mentioned our plans,” recalled Dr. Sweet. “He said, ‘hey, go talk to this guy in Canfield.’”

“That guy” was pharmacist Dan Wearsch, who had operated the Canfield pharmacy for about 10 years and was getting ready to retire. Dr. Jones and Dr. Sweet’s brother, Joshua Sweet, Pharm.D. (’14), had done rotations there as NEOMED pharmacy students.

Drs. Sweet and Jones purchased the pharmacy and re-opened the store as Elite Pharmacy in February 2022, three months before Jacob’s graduation.

Once they had settled in, they started growing quickly from a single location to five in just four years.

RAPID GROWTH

The second location of Elite Pharmacy opened in October 2023 in Garrettsville, Ohio. The partners purchased the store from pharmacist Paul Marva, who was ready to pass the torch of ownership after 40 years or so. Marva continues to work at the Elite location in Garrettsville.

“He is a great mentor of mine,” noted Dr. Sweet.

The store in New Philadelphia followed in July 2024.

The fourth store, in East Palestine, Ohio, opened in October 2025.

“Those folks down there were just desperate for healthcare after the train derailment. There was no pharmacy within 10 miles. When we talk about pharmacy deserts, healthcare deserts, they’re kind of the epitome of that,” he said.

The fifth store, acquired in December 2025, is located down the road from NEOMED in Ravenna, Ohio.

Jacob Sweet, Pharm.D. (center) demonstrates how to fill a prescription for NEOMED pharmacy students Makenna Proy and Sandor Jakab.

MAKING IT WORK

Dr. Sweet acknowledges that opening or purchasing independent pharmacies at a time when other stores are closing can be risky.

His advice? “Control what you can control, which isn’t much, but you have to be smart about the way that you do it in the store that you’re buying. You’ve got to be creative for sure. Because if you’re just filling prescriptions and relying on the pharmacy benefit managers, the PBMs, you’re going to be toast.”

What creative things are the Elite Pharmacy owners doing?

“Vaccines drive a good chunk of our business. You also have to have a good OTC [over the counter] mix. You want people to come into your store, you want to fill their prescriptions, but you have to do other things too. We can set the price on over-the-counter items, so we’re not losing money per se. We’re at least making some sort of margin.”

“I love what I do every day, six days a week. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

– Jacob Sweet, Pharm.D.

He noted that thanks to work by advocates such as Jaclyn Boyle, Pharm.D. (’12), and the CPESN network, pharmacists are now considered providers in the state of Ohio, which enables Medicaid billing for more clinical services.

“I can sit down with a patient and discuss their diabetes. Yes, you have diabetes, but what does that actually mean? Do you need help putting a sensor on? What about mental health medications? That’s another population where instead of just filling a prescription and letting them go out the door, really educating them on the importance of their medication, the resources that are available, things like that.”

It also covers compounding, which Elite Pharmacy offers at its Canfield location. Dr. Sweet noted that can be especially important with patients with conditions like autism, who may react negatively to different textures or tastes.

“We can put it into a more palatable, dosing form that I won’t say they’ll be excited to take, but they’ll be a little bit less resistant,” he said.

KEEPING IT LOCAL

Dr. Sweet believes it is important for the Elite stores to be fully integrated into the communities where they operate.

“When I’m down in East Palestine, I try to go visit a locally owned restaurant and support businesses that support us. Same thing for New Philadelphia. It’s 75 miles from my house. I do try to connect with them, but their community is different than my community. We hire people from their community to work in the stores, because if we don’t do that then we’re no different than a corporation that just comes in and does things our way.”

In addition to local staff, each Elite Pharmacy is stocked with locally grown or produced items along with their usual OTC mix.

“In East Palestine, we have locally produced honey from somebody that lives down the road,” Dr. Sweet said. “And then we have a lady who writes children’s books. The least thing that we can do is support her by bringing her children’s books in. There’s a family that makes dog treats and stuff, too.”

Other Elite Pharmacy stores also carry local products from the surrounding communities.

Daniel Jones, Pharm.D.

REWARDS OF INDEPENDENCE

While operating independent pharmacies can be challenging, for Dr. Sweet, the rewards outweigh the hurdles.

“Doing things the way that you want to do them is really nice. And I don’t say that it has to be my way or the highway. We see what patients need, and we don’t have to go through 15 levels of corporate to get it done. We see the need and we can just do it. Being able to pivot super, super quick is really rewarding,” he shared.

He also believes being independent allows Elite to build better relationships in the community.

“I like talking to everybody. So when my patients come in, I ask what their family’s doing. Being able to have those connections and not having someone breathing down my neck and saying, ‘you’re not meeting your metrics because you’re doing other things,’ which is talking and connecting with our patients,” he said. “I love what I do every day, six days a week. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Daniel Jones, Pharm.D., checks inventory at an Elite Pharmacy location.

DEFINING LEADERSHIP

“Leadership is different for everybody. At the end of the day, it is, in my opinion, getting a group of people coming together for a common cause to accomplish whatever needs to be done,” Dr. Sweet said. “Leadership at Elite Pharmacy is leading our staff of 30 people now in the common goal of taking care of our patients and ensuring the success of the pharmacy.”

He also feels strongly about mentoring the next generation of pharmacy leaders.

“There are numerous students here. It’s by design. One of the first things I tell them is that you never know what could come from your rotations.” As noted above, Elite Pharmacy had its early germination during rotations of Dr. Jones and Dr. Joshua Sweet.

It’s also worth noting that you never know what can come from a class. The business plan for opening their first store was rooted in a plan Dr. Jacob Sweet produced in a pharmacy management course with Scott Wisneski, Pharm.D., during his second year at NEOMED.

Students have been rotating through the Garrettsville location for about a year. The Canfield location has taken students from the start.

“A lot of students like to go there because there’s not a ton of compounding pharmacies around in that area,” Dr. Sweet noted.

Although Elite Pharmacy is less than five years old, they have already offered positions to some NEOMED students who completed their APPEs at the store.

FUTURE GROWTH

“Pharmacy deserts are a major problem. For example, in East Palestine, a lot of people in town don’t have a car. Before we came into town, you would have to drive or find transportation for a solid 20 minutes at least to go get your pills. Most people are hesitant to take medications anyways for a host of reasons. It could be because there’s stigma around them. It could be the side effects associated with them. So if you add another barrier of 25 minutes to go get them, most people are going to say, ‘I’ll just go without’ and roll the dice and see what happens. You don’t have to be a doctor to realize how bad that is for healthcare in general,” Dr. Sweet said.

He pointed out the unique position on pharmacists in healthcare.

“I think the entire healthcare world can most likely agree, pharmacists provide by far the most easily accessible healthcare,” he contends. “You don’t need an appointment to come in and see me. You walk into any of our stores, or any other independent pharmacy, and you can have a pretty in-depth discussion.”

“Independent pharmacy isn’t going to die on our watch,” Dr. Sweet observed.