BUCYRUS / GALION / ONTARIO – July 3, 2025 – Avita Health System has announced the launch of a Drug Repository Program at its hospitals in Bucyrus, Galion, and Ontario, marking a major expansion of its ongoing commitment to improving access to essential medications for patients across North Central Ohio. This new initiative builds on the remarkable success of Avita’s Medication Access Program, which has already helped patients acquire millions of dollars of life-sustaining prescriptions.

The new Drug Repository Program allows individuals and organizations to donate unexpired prescription medications for redistribution to qualifying patients at no cost. Medications will be carefully inspected and verified by licensed pharmacists before being dispensed to ensure they meet all Ohio State Board of Pharmacy safety requirements.

“It is truly a solution for a number of scenarios we encounter all of the time,” said Brad Schwartz, Pharmacy Clinical Services Manager at Avita Health System. “A patient has a change in therapy and would like to see if their unused medication could help someone else or a loved one passes away and the family would like to donate the medications left behind. Typically, there is no place that these medications can be sent and the advice is to just dispose of them. The Drug Repository ensures medications can be donated and put to good use.”

Launched in early 2022, Avita’s Medication Access Program was developed to help patients overcome barriers to medication affordability and navigate the various avenues of assistance for uninsured and underinsured patients. The program’s team, led by pharmacists and a pharmacy technician at each hospital’s Medication Management Center, works closely with patients to identify cost-saving opportunities through manufacturer assistance programs, copay savings cards, health grants, and therapeutic alternatives. The program helped acquire over $10 million worth of medications last

year alone. These savings have come largely from access to high-cost brand name medications used to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, pulmonary disease, and kidney disease.

“Through our Medication Access Program, we routinely encountered patients receiving medications through drug manufacturer assistance programs that wished they could pass along their unused medications,” added Schwartz. “By leveraging our collaboration among physician practices within the health system, our team’s clinical pharmacy expertise, and relationships with our patients, we’re able to match donated medications with the people who need them most. It’s a model of care that’s people-centered, resourceful, and deeply rooted in our mission.”

In 2023, the Ohio legislature updated laws pertaining to drug repository programs and allowed hospitals to begin operating repositories with much broader categories of medications that can be accepted. Christina Barnes, Director of Pharmacy Services at Avita Health System noted, “there are only a handful of hospitals in Ohio that operate drug repositories, typically you will see even a large health system only have one outpatient pharmacy established for donations but will be limited on what they can accept. What Avita is doing is very unique by having our three hospitals engaged in this program. We can accept many more types of medications and have a wider network of services to re-dispense them; whether they are patients that are cared for by our ambulatory care pharmacists or have a demonstrated need during hospitalization. This will also be a critical service in our expanding oncology program.”

To receive medications, patients must be referred by a medical provider to Avita’s Medication Access Program, be an Ohio resident, and meet specific financial criteria. Criteria includes those who are uninsured, underinsured, or meet income guidelines relative to the federal poverty level. The pharmacy team operating the drug repository will also partner with hospital-based clinical pharmacists to provide medications upon discharge to inpatients who have been hospitalized in relation to unmet prescription needs, thus allowing patients to leave the hospital with medications in hand.

“We are well aware of the financial strain that medication costs can place on individuals and families,” said Schwartz. “No one should have to choose between buying groceries or filling a prescription. Our Medication Access Program was created to offer one way we can bridge that gap and now, with the Drug Repository, we’re taking that mission one step further by adding a new layer of access by repurposing unused medications that would otherwise go to waste.”

Those who wish to donate unused, unexpired medications may donate them directly at:

· Galion Hospital Medication Management Center, 269 Portland Way S, Galion

· Avita Ontario Pharmacy, 600 Richland Mall, Ontario

· Avita Crestline Pharmacy, 385 N Seltzer St, Crestline For information about donation criteria, visit: https://avitahealth.org/services/medication-management/#drug-repository

Additional information about Avita’s Medication Access Program and Drug Repository can be obtained by contacting any of their Medication Management Center locations:

· Bucyrus: 419-563-9835
· Galion: 419-462-4590
· Ontario: 567-307-7919

Jennie James