GLP-1s Can Transform Health: Your Pharmacy Can Help Point the Way

Ask Americans where they turn for health and wellness, and the answer is often the place closest to home. There is a pharmacy within five miles of 90 percent of Americans. For millions, it is the nearest and most accessible health-care destination: open early, late, and on weekends, usually with no appointment required. That reach into communities, paired with pharmacists’ trusted expertise, is exactly what makes this such a powerful resource. Yet pharmacy remains underused for bringing better health to more people.

A prescription is a beginning, not a finish line.

Pharmacy’s standing with the public has been earned one person at a time, prescription by prescription, question by question, across generations. It has been earned in national emergencies, too—from H1N1 to the steady fight against chronic disease to COVID-19, when pharmacies became the front door to testing and vaccination for tens of millions. With each of those moments, appreciation from government and stakeholders has grown. They have seen clearly that expertise, accessibility, trust, and scale can move the health of a nation.

We are now standing at the next frontier: GLP-1 medications. These treatments are reshaping how we approach obesity and chronic disease. But a prescription is a beginning, not a finish line. Care goes far beyond the prescription, and pharmacies and pharmacists are ideally positioned within the team that can help people use these treatments safely and successfully over time.

That is the focus of a forthcoming Milken Institute report, supported by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), to be unveiled at the 2026 Future of Health Summit. To complement it, NACDS commissioned opinion research from Public Opinion Strategies—six focus groups and a national survey of 1,200 adults, including an oversample of current, former, and likely GLP-1 users.

The opinion research findings are worth previewing. Confidence in pharmacists as a resource for GLP-1 questions runs high—83 percent among adults nationally and 93 percent among GLP-1 users. Nearly three-quarters of GLP-1 users (74 percent) agree that more opportunities to work with a pharmacist would improve their experience and success with the medication. The services people value most are the practical ones: navigating coverage and cost, managing side effects, and understanding how to use and store the medication—with those new to therapy placing a particularly high premium on that foundational education. The services that people would value most also align closely with the reasons that people suspend their use of GLP-1s, which suggests an opportunity for pharmacists to improve adherence.

There is more. GLP-1 users would also find it valuable for pharmacists to connect them with resources beyond the prescription: connecting them with a dietitian or other qualified nutrition professional (85 percent very or somewhat valuable); providing them with resources and information about the importance of physical activity (91 percent very or somewhat valuable); and providing or directing them to a starter kit with products and resources that may be helpful while taking the medication, such as hydration or nutrition products, exercise equipment, and educational materials (89 percent very or somewhat valuable). 

This is how a medication becomes a health outcome—when a trusted professional is there for the whole journey.

This marks the third formal collaboration between the Milken Institute and NACDS. The first examined Food Is Medicine. The second addressed chronic disease and broader health challenges. 

Two threads run through all of them. One is the central role—and potentially larger role—of pharmacies and pharmacists in meeting the nation's health needs. The other is that each report produced recommendations for government and other stakeholders to deliver on the needs and expectations of patients, and the full potential of pharmacy. The recommendations in the GLP-1 report are based on a review of the evidence; interviews with pharmacy, clinical, payer, and policy leaders; and the opinion research. As with all recommendations, they will require action in order for them to make a difference for the American people.

The answer to how we make better health accessible to more people is already in nearly every neighborhood. GLP-1 medications are proof of the opportunity before us: breakthroughs that reach their full potential only when trusted, accessible partners help people succeed over time. That is what pharmacies and pharmacists are positioned to do as an essential part of the team. The forthcoming report will point the way. Let's follow it.