The last standing independent pharmacy in Marin County has found a new steward while staying true to its family-owned roots. Novato resident Alan Chan has acquired West Marin Pharmacy from Zsuzsanna Biran, a heterodox pharmacist who has run the operation for the past 17 years.
In an era when brick-and-mortar stores can seem like relics and independent pharmacies are routinely swallowed up by behemoths, West Marin Pharmacy—the only drugstore across a vast rural stretch—continues to operate much as it has since it opened in 1954.
“I’m the kind of person who likes to talk to customers,” Ms. Biran said from her makeshift office in the back of the shop, cordoned off by a curtain and a row of bookcases. “A small-town pharmacist knows more about their patients than the typical staff at a chain drugstore.”
In a place like this, your pharmacist does more than fill orange-tinted bottles with multi-colored pills and capsules. They know your history, they know what ails you, and they know just what the doctor ordered.
West Marin Pharmacy has been operating this way for over 70 years. Like an old-fashioned general store, its aisles are packed with the small necessities of life: cough medicines, headache remedies, spare eyeglasses, crutches, candy bars, cosmetics, greeting cards, brushes and brooms.
Since Ms. Biran’s arrival, one aisle has been dedicated to holistic treatments, offering Chinese herbs, homeopathic remedies and Ayurvedic medicine. A small sign taped to the wall above a shelf of pill planners, thermometers and earplugs reads: “West Marin Pharmacy’s Mission: To Re-Invent Ourselves as a Holistic Wellness Center.”
A counter runs along the side of the store, staffed by clerks in white coats. Other employees include a part-time pharmacist, a technician and two high school students who work on weekends. Here, customers don’t line up at a discreet distance, but crowd the counter and talk loudly about their health problems. Others stop by just to chat.
Ms. Biran’s sister, Devorah Shragis, a chemist herself, has been helping out for the past eight years. “It’s become clear to me that not every pharmacy is like this,” she said. “The relationships that are built between the consumer and the store are very different than your run-of-the-mill pharmacy.”
Ms. Biran was born in Cold War-era Budapest, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who were both chemists. Her family fled Hungary as refugees in the late 1960s, first landing in Paris, then emigrating to Bridgeport, Conn.—the “armpit of the country,” she said with a laugh.
She went on to study pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, married, began her career in Kingston, N.H., and had her first child. Later, she moved to Silicon Valley, where, after a divorce, she met her future husband, Jason Yoon, at a free-form dance class in the lineage of Isadora Duncan led by an ordained shaman. (“At first, there was no chemistry,” she admitted, “but on the dance floor, without words, we hooked up.”)
In 2006, the pharmacy’s previous proprietor, Dan Donovan, a man known to be “generous to a fault,” died suddenly, and his family frantically sought a buyer. When local doctor Steve Hadland and his wife, Anneke van der Veen—friends from that same dance class—mentioned the opportunity to Ms. Biran, she found it impossible to resist.
She and Mr. Yoon relocated to West Marin later that year, bringing with them a vision for a pharmacy that offered a cocktail of Eastern and Western medical traditions. “We wanted to provide something beyond the symptom-suppressing approach of conventional allopathic medicine,” she said. “With Eastern remedies, you treat the branch and the root; you treat the symptom and the cause.”
But Ms. Biran is now ready to move on. She has seen firsthand how the pharmaceutical industry evolved over the decades, growing more stringent and demanding. “There’s a lot more regulations, a lot more paperwork, a lot more headaches,” she admits.
Her husband has already relocated to Guadalajara, which Ms. Biran calls the “Silicon Valley of Mexico.” There, he is launching a wearable medical device company, and once Ms. Biran finalizes the sale and gets her things in order, she plans to join him.
For Mr. Chan, who grew up in the Bay Area, taking over the pharmacy is the realization of a childhood dream. After 19 years working as a pharmacist, he recognizes the rarity of owning his own in today’s corporate-dominated landscape. “Everyone works for the big-box chains or the hospital systems,” he said. “We want to offer something more community oriented.”
Over the past week, Mr. Chan has been in and out of the pharmacy, meticulously taking stock of the inventory. He’s intent on continuing to operate it as a mom-and-pop, along with his fiancée, Rosie Wong, who will oversee operations. He also plans to modernize the business with what he calls a “data-driven approach” to better serve the community’s needs.
“It’s very ’70s in here,” Mr. Chan remarked with a smile, clipboard in hand, the pharmacy humming. Gesturing toward the faux-wood paneling, he added, “It reminds me of my grandma’s house!” While they plan to preserve the name and retain the staff, he noted that a refresh, perhaps starting with a new logo, is on the horizon.
“With new ownership, there’s always a reassessment of what works and what doesn’t,” said Eva Avalos, a clerk who has been with West Marin Pharmacy for 33 years. “Things change,” she added. “Before Zsuzsannita”—using the affectionate diminutive—“we used an old-fashioned register and only sold Western medicine.”
Ms. Biran, who fondly refers to Ms. Avalos as the “sun we all orbit,” credits her as the heart and soul of the operation.
One notable change will be Mr. Chan’s ability to dispense controlled substances, a practice that Ms. Biran had been barred from for several years after a dispute with the California State Board of Pharmacy. The sale of the store was contingent on settling outstanding allegations that the business had flouted regulations even while on probation for procedural violations. Earlier this fall, Ms. Biran agreed to a settlement and paid the necessary fines.
After months of waiting, the sale, which has been in the works since last November, finally received board approval. According to Mr. Chan, only “a slew of paperwork” remains before the deal is finalized, likely in the coming week.
Reflecting on the transition, Ms. Biran marveled at how things have come full circle. “I bought the store from a man from Novato,” she said, wide-eyed at the symmetry. “And now I’m selling it to a man from Novato.”