Friday, April 11, 2008

Farmers Branch family-owned “Total Pharmacy” will offer drug compounding along with milk, bread, and eggs

By Minnie Payne

FARMERS BRANCH — According to owner/pharmacist-in-charge Kunle Tometi, Total Pharmacy, a family-owned drug store located at 14500 Josey Lane, Suite 101, Farmers Branch, hopes to be only the second store in the Carrollton/Farmers Branch area to compound prescriptions.

Compounding, explains Tometi, takes place when doctors write prescriptions that require the pharmacist to customize the prescription, i.e. a particular strength of the drug is needed that the drug manufacturer does not make.

“My compounding room is almost complete, but I’ll have to get some certifications from the National Association of Compounding Pharmacists before I actually start compounding,” said Tometi. “I hope to have this completed by September 2008.”

The staff consists of Tometi, pharmacist in charge/owner, Ana Gonzalez, certified technician/manager, and Lindsey Rodrigues, technician in training.

Originally from Lagos, Nigeria, 40-year-old Tometi graduated from the University of Ife in Western Nigeria, receiving a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in 1988. After graduation, he said that he worked as an area sales manager for Glaxo Welome (GSK) from 1990 to 1995 and from 1995 to 1998, he owned his own pharmacy.

“In May, 1998, I left Nigeria and moved to Carrollton and because I wasn’t certified as a licensed pharmacist in the United States, I took a job as a cashier for Eckerd/CVS,” he said.

He had to do conversion examinations through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and the Texas State Board of Pharmacy and completed 1,500 hours of internship, he said.

“I moved up the ladder from being a cashier, to technician, to graduate intern, to staff pharmacist, to pharmacy manager, to district manager, until I went back to being a pharmacist in 2007 for family reasons,” Tometi said. “We opened Total Pharmacy April 5 in order to have a soft opening, preparing for our grand opening Saturday, April 12 through 19.”

Total Pharmacy’s mission is to be the pharmacy provider of choice that delivers pharmaceutical care to improve the healthcare of our local community. Its philosophy is to be prompt, polite and to provide personal service.

Prepare yourself for a total shopping experience, he said, in that milk, bread, eggs, snacks and so forth can be found on the shelves. For a more detailed list of products, go to this website

The drug inventory consists of the top 400 prescribed medicines which have been retrieved from prescribers and neighboring pharmacies, Tometi explained, and if a medicine isn’t in stock, he can get next-day delivery from wholesaler McKesson.

“The drive-through is handy, and we open at 7 a.m. before work and school,” he said. “Also, if the customer chooses, we flavor medicines to make them taste better.”

Tometi said that oftentimes large pharmacies don’t have enough labor to take care of their customers’ needs and one of his goals is to provide skilled/trained labor to the public in an effort to provide good service in a speedy fashion.

“We provide prompt, accurate and professional service,” he said.

Richard Brown and his wife, Connie, patronized Tometi when he worked for Eckerd/CVS and plans to be a transfer customer to Total Pharmacy.

“Kunle helped my wife with numerous medicines that she was taking, and we found him to be very patient and compassionate,” said Brown. “He always takes the time to explain the medicines which means a great deal to us.”

Tometi has been married to his wife, Angela, for 15 years, and they have four children, Simi, 14, Stephen, 8, Sean, 7, and Sophie, 1.

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