The School of Pharmacy held its first Business Awards Ceremony on April 5. Presented at the ceremony were the Scotiabank Pharmacy Entrepreneurship Award and the Pharmasave Industrial Case Study Competition Award.
The Scotiabank Pharmacy Entrepreneurship Competition provides pharmacy students with the opportunity to create the blueprint necessary to develop a new business start-up. Students are encouraged to pursue new, innovative ventures within the health care industry. In the first year of the competition, twelve contending individuals/ teams submitted comprehensive plans proposing novel enterprises. The top three ventures were then selected to deliver presentations to a panel of stakeholders from various sectors.
The winning venture was MyPharmacyPatient, based on a highly innovative educational platform developed and led by third-year student Peter Pagacz. Peter received the grant prize, which is valued at $15,000.
The annual competition and award is generously sponsored by Scotiabank and Scotia Private Client Group, with professional services provided in-kind by Gowlings and KPMG. Pictured above are (l-r) Elizabeth Heald, Scotia Private Client Group; Peter Pagacz; and Paul Smith, Scotiabank.
The Pharmasave Industrial Case Study Competition Award was also presented during the ceremony. This competition, now in its second year, is an incentivized final examination of the comprehensive core ‘Fundamentals of Business Administration and Management’ program. Teams of pharmacy students were sought as consultants to analyze and offer strategic solutions toward the self-sustainability of the School’s Clinical Capstone program.
After submitting reports, delivering presentations, and defending their proposals to a panel of judges, one winning team, whose members include Mihir Patel, Calvin Poon, Catherine Prochazka, Vanessa Raco, and Alia Thawer, received the $5,000 cash prize, generously sponsored by Pharmasave. Pictured above are (l-r) Mihir Patel, Billy Cheung (Pharmasave), Catherine Prochazka, Alia Thawer, Calvin Poon. Missing is Vanessa Raco.
These competitions represent only a few of the components of the comprehensive business curriculum designed and developed by Dr. Roderick Slavcev, who holds the Shoppers Drug Mart Professor of Business and Entrepreneurship Chair. The business curriculum aligns with the School’s mission to generate graduates with the necessary management skills needed to lead the profession of pharmacy.