Summer 2012 - Western University of Health Sciences

Alumni and Preceptor Profile
Tony and Cindy Le, PharmD ’07
By Jeff Malet, Writer/Photographer
Just five years after graduating from Western University of
Health Sciences, Tony and Cindy Le have already opened
two pharmacies.
The 2007 College of Pharmacy alumni met at WesternU,
eventually got married and now have a baby named Emma.
Tony runs the two pharmacies, TC Medical Pharmacy in
Corona and the newly opened TC Compounding Pharmacy
in Orange, while Cindy is a clinical pharmacist for
Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (PIH) in Whittier.
Tony said after successfully running the Corona pharmacy
for a year and a half, he was able to hire a full-time
pharmacist and open TC Compounding Pharmacy because
“compounding is something new, and down the line, this is
where the market is shifting,” he said. “Patients are leaning
more toward individualized dosages or patient-specific
medications.”
While at WesternU, Tony took the College of Pharmacy’s
Advanced Elective on Entrepreneurial Independent Pharmacy
Ownership with Dr. Jesse Martinez, which taught him how to
write a business plan for a successful independent pharmacy.
“After that course, I ran out and managed different
pharmacies, and I combined my experience in the course
with my own experience. That’s how I’m owning and
building pharmacies,” he said.
In 2011, Tony took the College’s Contemporary
Compounding Intensive CE Course, gaining the knowledge
and skills to prepare compounded medications and services.
Tony’s experience started when he worked at Kaiser
Permanente’s pharmacy in Fontana for almost five years,
from his undergrad days at Cal Poly Pomona until shortly
after his graduation from WesternU. His plan was to work in
various retail pharmacies, gain experience in the market, and
eventually open his own pharmacy.
He started working at a CVS pharmacy, then Costco’s
central refill and mail order pharmacy, and eventually
multiple independent pharmacies.
After graduation from WesternU, Cindy was unsure if she
wanted to go the community route or the in-patient route.
After some rotations, she decided she liked a hospital/clinical
setting, and did her residency at Fountain Valley Regional
Medical Center.
Then she became the clinical pharmacist at PIH, where she
remains.
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