Cincinnati Neighborhood Welcomes Its First Pharmacy In 17 Years, And It’s Black Owned: ‘It’s All About Our Dedication To Their Care’
Cincinatti’s Avondale neighborhood hasn’t had a pharmacy in 17 years, but that recently changed with the grand opening of Altev Community Pharmacy.
Dr. Emmanuel Ayanjoke has become a beacon of light for his community as he is the creator and founder of the new pharmacy that will help aid residents with their healthcare needs, according to ABC 9. The company will also have a discount program that lowers the cost of prescriptions and other items at no cost to its customers.
“It’s all about our patients,” Ayanjoke said in an interview with ABC9. “It’s all about our dedication to their care.”
Avondale community leaders like Quentin Taylor are happy about the arrival of the drugstore because now they have easy access to affordable prescriptions that help them better maintain their health for quality living.
“It means a lot for the community, for our community, because we have a lot of Black people in our community,” he said. “They don’t have cars. They can’t get to [their] medicine.”
In addition to having a convenient pharmacy in the neighborhood, Taylor shared that it being a Black-owned business is even more impactful for people of color since representation matters.
“Because it makes the Black people comfortable, coming to the pharmacy … talking to him every day and he understands where we come from,” Taylor explained.
One of Ayanjoke’s new patients, Wanda White, is someone who knows first-hand what the service is like under the physician after she chose his pharmacy following a conversation with another doctor, Dr. Manny.
“He takes good care of me,” White said. “Sometimes I don’t want to do like the doctor tells me to do, but he’s on it, he’s like ‘Now, Wanda, you know you’re supposed to be doing this.’ He takes the time to go through every one of my prescriptions for me.”
Sandra Jones Mitchell, Avondale Community Council’s president, is another client of Altev Community Pharmacy who had a positive experience.
“He also told me some things that I didn’t know about my medicine. There was some I was taking at night I should have took in the morning, right, and so my doctor never caught that,” she said.
With financial assistance from McKesson, a healthcare company, Ayanjoke obtained his brick-and-mortar location. The organization has a pilot program called Project Oasis that offers doctors working in the pharmaceutical industry help to open a successful, self-sufficient pharmacy in underprivileged communities, and Altev Community Pharmacy is McKesson’s inaugural location.
“We have a purpose and it’s to improve health outcomes for all,” McKesson’s CEO Brian Tyler said.
To celebrate Ayanjoke’s monumental achievement, Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Cincinnati City Council members Scotty Johnson and Seth Walsh, Congressman Greg Landsman, as well as Hamilton County Commission President Alicia Reece came to the grand opening to show support.
“This has been ground zero as it relates to health deserts, food deserts, economic deserts — we are the desert — but thanks to God today, we’re bringing some water,” she said.
