Behind the Counter to Behind the Screen

ccidents happen.

Many pharmacists do not typically sum up their careers this way. However, Osita Najomo, PharmD, MBA, (Pharmacy ’04) is not a typical pharmacist. It would probably be more accurate to describe her as one part pharmacist and one part entrepreneur.

Najomo founded Westlake HB Pharma in 2017 in Garland, Texas. Her focus is on affordable over-the-counter products that she compounds and manufactures through an Ohio-based manufacturing plant.

This spring, with friends and family surrounding her, Najomo introduced her latest product to the market: a topical cream to relieve pain and itching. The new product launch also celebrated her latest entrepreneurial achievement — inclusion in Walmart’s online pharmacy on a trial basis.

She was among the 60 small businesses to receive the company’s Golden Ticket award in 2024, which guarantees a product’s placement on the shelves of stores nationwide. This newest venture adds to the other online retailers, including eBay and Amazon, with which Najomo works to sell her products. As a result, she has fully transitioned to only selling Westlake HB pharmaceutical products online.

“It is a natural transition, even though it’s accidental,” Najomo adds. “It’s natural because I’m just doing with my products what I did as a pharmacist.”

As a retail pharmacist, Najomo regularly anticipated patients’ wants and needs as they walked into her storefront. As she advanced in her career, she also found a new curiosity on the business side. In 2012, she graduated with a master’s in business administration from Johns Hopkins University. A couple of years later, she started her first iteration of Westlake while working in administrative positions with pharmaceutical companies and medical centers.

“It’s not rare, but it is unique, especially in her class, to complete a joint PharmD/MBA program, which was before we started the dual degree program,” Grace Kuo, PharmD, MPH, PhD, dean of the Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy, says.

Plans for the TTUHSC PharmD/MBA dual degree program started in 2006, as a collaboration with the Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business, and the first student was enrolled three years later. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest joint programs of its kind in the United States.

The work Najomo is doing intersects business and science, a recent trend birthed by the increase in digital services after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology. Research published in the last year shows that customers are more comfortable with the idea of making online purchases for pharmaceuticals.

Frontiers in Pharmacology’s research also indicates that many people still trust and frequent traditional storefronts. Kuo also acknowledges this, noting that there is still a lot of regulatory work needed for online pharmaceutical companies. Trends indicate the immediate future of pharmacy may not be solely online, but there is a place for some people to use new technology to their advantage.

“It’s hard to say at this point, but I am sure any type of technology and advancement using technology is the future of a lot of health care, including pharmaceutical products,” Kuo says.

Part of taking advantage of current technology includes playing a type of guessing game, as Najomo puts it, to anticipate what products her customers worldwide will want. So, she must closely watch shopping trends from her online store and see what prompts the most commercial reaction.

“I’m just imagining what patients want? What do they need?” she adds. “For you to be successful in this, you need to understand.”

A close friend of Najomo’s, Lucy Barrachina, PharmD, (Pharmacy ’04) also notes that approach. They have kept in touch since graduation, and Barrachina regularly seeks advice from Najomo, which partly led her to start her holistic pharmacy business in Houston, Texas.

Barrachina is developing a method to utilize online applications to provide personalized customer recommendations that support weight loss. Recently, she has also started work to try to introduce the use of artificial intelligence for custsomer health plans.

“There are so many things, technology-wise, we can use to actually make health care more convenient to patients,” Barrachina says.

Because of Najomo’s work integrating technology and pharmacy, it was no surprise to Barrachina that Walmart was interested in Westlake HB’s product. Najomo is an “overachiever,” as Barrachina says.

Some of Najomo’s time is spent reflecting on her days as a retail pharmacist, when customers would come in seeking the most cost-effective option for their various ailments. Now, looking to the future, Najomo says there is more work that needs to be done to keep products on online store shelves, keep the business afloat and — more importantly to her — keep costs low for her customers.

Within the next couple of years, she hopes to move the manufacturing part of the business to North Texas for greater convenience. With that, the goal is to expand the number of products she can sell online. Even with that goal in mind, there is still room for more “accidents.”

“There is something in me that is bigger than a paycheck,” Najomo says. “If it were a paycheck, I could have done anything else. I’m already in tomorrow, even though I’m here today.”