Panel wants approval for pharmacy school

Friday, Sept. 8, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

A Board of Regents committee has recommended approval for a School of Pharmacy at both UNLV and UNR campuses even though the source of the $12 million needed to start and operate it over the next six years has not been identified.

The full Board of Regents was to consider today whether to approve the plan for the school that will cost nearly $5 million to finance in 2003 and '04 when the first students go to UNR for part of their studies.

"There is a need for the School of Pharmacy to enhance state health care and attract pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms (to the state)," said Dr. David Westfall, vice president for Academic Affairs at UNR and the UNR Foundation professor of pharmacology.

He told the Regents Academic, Research and Student Affairs Committee that Nevada is the only Western state that does not have a pharmacy school, so Nevada students have to go elsewhere for education they could be receiving here.

Westfall also said his proposal would involve the state's entire university and college system and would benefit rural Nevada where some students would be sent to study and work in town pharmacies.

The six-year program, as proposed, would involve two years of pre-pharmacy studies at community colleges statewide, two years of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences at UNR where such classes already are conducted and two years of clinical experience, practice experience and specialized practices at UNLV.

Westfall said the plan calls for the first pre-pharmacy classes to begin next fall, the first professional pharmacy classes to begin at UNR in the fall of 2003, the first clinical pharmacy classes to start at UNLV in the fall of 2005 and the first Pharm. D doctoral graduations to occur in May 2007.

It would cost in-state students $6,000 a year and out-of-state students $13,000 a year to go through the pharmacy doctoral program, Westfall said, noting that those fees are lower than the regional average for public institutions.

By 2006, tuition would account for $1.2 million of the program's income, Westfall said, leaving $1.3 million to be funded that year and each year after that, presumably by the state. The huge pricetag to be paid by public funds concerns Regent Steve Sisolak.

"I support the concept in theory, but I am very concerned about the bottom-line (cost) -- I cannot support it (the motion) at this time," said Sisolak the only dissenting vote of the four committee members present.

Sisolak said officials of the proposed school should strongly lobby major pharmaceutical companies to see if a public-private partnership could be reached to help reduce the burden on Nevada taxpayers.

Outgoing UNR President Joe Crowley said a lot of work went into Thursday's proposal before the committee and that other financial help is being sought outside of Nevada.

"We are diligently seeking support from the federal government," Crowley said noting that the issue will come down to "a priority decision to the state. ... If the money isn't there, there will be no school of pharmacy. But the school would meet a demonstrative need."