Local pharmacy donates hand sanitizer to first responders

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Wellness Pharmacy, a third-generation family-owned pharmacy in Homewood, manufactured 150 bottles of hand sanitizer and donated them today to local first responders in an effort to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 150 bottles were split four ways, with about 35 bottles each for the Homewood and Mountain Brook fire and police departments.

This donation was part of a national campaign by the Professional Compounding Centers of America called the #CompoundingHandoff. The PCCA developed formulas to compound pharmaceutical-grade, alcohol-based hand sanitizer based on FDA-approved guidelines from the World Health Organization and shared them with pharmacists around the world.

Rod Harbin Jr, the president of Wellness Pharmacy, said he got the idea to participate in the campaign from his wife. She’s a PCCA employee.

“She had an idea to raise awareness about what compounding can do during a time like this, in a crisis situation,” Harbin said. “It’s just a great message, and it’s a great way to serve the community and show them what we can do.”

Because of the national shortage of supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harbin said pharmacies have gone back to the basics.

“It’s what pharmacies did long ago,” he said. “We had to make everything.”

Harbin chose to donate to first responders in Homewood because that’s where his pharmacy is located, and he chose to also donate to first responders in Mountain Brook because that’s the city where his family lives. 

“This is greatly appreciated,” said Lt. Mark Shannon with Homewood Fire Department.. “What we currently have in our stock is what’s been donated to us, and it’s running very low. So the stock they donated today is going to help us out a lot.”

Mountain Brook police chief Ted Cook echoed this sentiment.

“We appreciate Wellness Pharmacy and them bringing the hand sanitizer to us,” he said. “We go through a lot of that on a day-to-day basis as you can imagine, and every bit of donation really helps us out.”

After making 150 bottles this week, the pharmacy has a goal to make at least 600 more bottles of hand sanitizer, Harbin said.

Harbin’s grandfather started the pharmacy in 1964 — back then, it was called Bob’s Discount Drugs.

“We were a true mom-and-pop corner drug street, and we were literally on the corner in downtown Homewood on 18th Street,” Harbin said.

The pharmacy moved farther down U.S. 31 about 18 years ago and changed the name. Harbin works there alongside his dad and brother.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, working in a pharmacy has been hectic, Harbin said. The staff had to split the shifts so that half as many people are working at a time to help with social distancing. They also moved to curbside pickup.

“It’s been one day after another — what extra measures can we take?” he said. “First and foremost, we have to protect ourselves. If we don’t do that, we won’t be there to serve the community.

“Pharmacists have a special role out there — we help doctors, we help patients, and we help others,” he said. “Today, we get to donate to the first responders. That’s something that I personally really wanted to do.”