Now You Can Buy Your Drugs at UHS And Charge Them to Mom and Dad

Even if its prices are not always as low, its stock not as ample and its hours not as convenient as those of its Harvard Square competitors, the University Health Services (UHS) Pharmacy, now five months old, has enough going for it to stay in business for some time.

It could also draw clients away from other pharmacies nearby--a prospect the UHS drug store is acutely aware of, and has taken steps to avoid.

"We run a low-key business because we don't want to take business away from the local pharmacies," Karl Wood, chief pharmacist at the UHS store, said last week. And so far, the major Harvard Square competitors say they have no complaints.

The "Good Neighbor Pharmacy," as the UHS apothecary bags advertise, services only Harvard community members with prescriptions from UHS, sells practically no brand name drugs and does not advertise. The store keeps permanent files of the drugs it distributes, so that customers can refill prescriptions without returning to UHS if they lose their medicine. And students can charge drug purchases to their term bills.

Wood said that although he has had a "very good response from students," it will be some time before the UHS pharmacists will have learned enough to accommodate the needs of all their customers.