From the CDR archives: Mike Wysong on pharmacy’s future

NEW YORK — Mike Wysong, the newly appointed President and CEO of NACDS, has been a familiar voice in Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers, speaking with retailmediaIQ over the years about leadership, advocacy, community pharmacy, and pharmacists’ evolving role in American health care.

Through interviews, Video Forums, roundtables, columns, and retailmediaIQ events, Wysong has consistently emphasized collaboration across the industry, pharmacy benefit manager reform, the importance of community pharmacy, and the opportunity for pharmacists to provide more clinical care.

Here is a look back at some of CDR and MMR’s coverage of Wysong and his views on the future of pharmacy.

In April 2023, Wysong became chair of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores board, succeeding Brian Nightengale. NACDS president and CEO Steven C. Anderson said Wysong brought “extraordinary energy, focus, insights, and passion” to the association.

Wysong used his first address as NACDS chair to emphasize collaboration, pharmacy access, PBM reform, chronic disease, health technology and an expanded role for pharmacy in health and wellness.

“Our founders would be pleased to know that we have remained faithful to the charter they implemented back in 1933: the idea that our industry and patients are better off if we work collaboratively in good faith, and in the service of something larger than our individual companies,” Wysong said.

He also looked ahead to a larger role for pharmacy in health care.

“We are clearly entering an important time for interdisciplinary care, for food as medicine, for behavioral and mental health, for point-of-care testing, for screenings, and for immunizations,” Wysong said.

Near the end of his term as NACDS chair, Wysong joined retailmediaIQ editor-in-chief Jeffrey Woldt for a March 2024 Video Forum. He reflected on what he had learned from traveling across the country and meeting with industry leaders, while discussing PBM reform, scope of practice, food as medicine and the state of retail pharmacy.

At the 2024 NACDS Annual Meeting, Wysong concluded a chairmanship that had taken him to 21 states and 42 cities.

“Being the Chair of NACDS was the honor of my life,” Wysong said.

The experience, he said, reinforced his belief in industry collaboration.

“When you conceive a vision and pursue it together, there is not a problem that can’t be solved.”

Wysong continued discussing the pressures facing pharmacy with CDR at the 2025 NACDS Annual Meeting. In another Video Forum with Woldt, he addressed the challenging operating environment, prospects for PBM reform, clinical services and CARE Pharmacies’ expansion.

Later that year, Wysong joined John Marraffa Jr. of Kinney Drugs, Jim Tsipakis of Giant Eagle and Aaron Wiese of Hy-Vee at retailmediaIQ’s NACDS Total Store Expo breakfast in San Diego.

The discussion focused on regional retailers’ ability to compete with much larger national companies through their community connections, agility and understanding of local customers.

“This is a very pressing topic,” Wysong said.

Wysong also participated in CDR’s 2025 Diabetes Care Roundtable, where he discussed the growing role community pharmacists can play in chronic disease management.

“Community pharmacies have long been viewed as trusted health partners and have largely served as primary access points for high-need patients, particularly those suffering from chronic diseases like hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes,” Wysong said.

He also addressed the expanding use of GLP-1 medications and the opportunity for pharmacists to provide consultations, monitoring, shared decision-making and longer-term patient support.

In January 2026, CDR took a deeper look at Wysong’s career and leadership in “Wysong’s latest ‘Tour of Duty’ is a triumph.”

The feature traced his career through Baxter Healthcare, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, as well as his leadership of CARE Pharmacies.

“Every role I assumed prepared me for the next one,” Wysong told CDR. “They’ve all been good ‘tours of duty.’”

He also made the case for pharmacy’s potential to play a larger role in health care.

“No profession has the same capability as pharmacy to transform our healthcare system,” Wysong said.

CDR returned to Wysong in April as part of its “Leadership That Empowers” coverage, focusing on his approach to leadership at CARE and within NACDS.

“One of the strengths of CARE is that we’re able to meet with our individual pharmacy owners to map out their vision for effective patient care, and then equip them with tailored resources like procurement, technology and advocacy to meet their unique needs,” Wysong said. “The reciprocal dialogue, built on trust and candor, yields proven strategies that scale value across our network.”

Looking ahead, Wysong said pharmacy was moving toward a more connected model of care.

“The next chapter of pharmacy will include a much more integrated model, with health tech accelerating the change,” he said. “It is imperative that as leaders we pay reverence to the past but prepare and refine our model for the future. This means assuming the role as the essential connector in tomorrow’s health care.”

Another CDR feature that month examined CARE’s growth and Wysong’s priorities for the cooperative, including reimbursement pressures, PBMs, clinical services, technology, AI, biosimilars and GLP-1 therapies.

Wysong said meaningful PBM reform could ultimately be “transformative for retail pharmacy’s sustainability and innovation.”

In May, Wysong sat down with retailmediaIQ president Jeffrey Friedman for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of community pharmacy.

“We’re no longer just filling prescriptions,” Wysong said. “We’re becoming high-tech, high-touch care providers, delivering proactive, personalized and preventative care where patients need it most.”

Wysong also discussed CARE’s expansion into specialty pharmacy, technology and efforts to provide more care outside traditional pharmacy settings.

“Our goal is to meet patients where they are — literally and figuratively,” he said. “We want to treat them with dignity and give them the support they need to live healthier lives at home.”

Wysong expanded on that vision in a July MMR column, “Community pharmacy’s next chapter: Turning industry challenges into opportunity.”

He acknowledged reimbursement pressures, DIR fees, PBMs and the difficulties facing independent and rural pharmacies, but argued that pharmacy also has an opportunity to redefine its role.

“The pharmacies that will thrive are the ones that embrace this shift, moving from simply dispensing medication to delivering meaningful clinical care,” Wysong wrote.

“This is our moment. Not because the challenges have disappeared but because we now have the trust, the tools and the opportunity to redefine what community and neighborhood pharmacy means in this country.”

Most recently, Wysong joined retailmediaIQ’s breakfast session at the 2026 NACDS Total Store Expo in Boston alongside John Marraffa of Kinney Drugs, Angie Nelson of Hy-Vee and Mike Stigers of Wakefern Food Corp./ShopRite.

The discussion again centered on the strengths of regional retailers, including their community knowledge, agility and relationships with suppliers.

Across those conversations, a consistent view of pharmacy emerges.

Wysong has repeatedly argued for greater collaboration within the industry, meaningful PBM reform and an expanded role for pharmacists as health care providers. He has also emphasized that technology should complement, rather than replace, the relationships community pharmacists have built with their patients.

As he wrote in MMR this summer: “The future isn’t something that happens to us; it’s something we build together.”