Higher-profile role raises profession’s allure for prospective students

BY RICHARD CHU, BIV

The growing use of medication in B.C. promises to keep pharmacy one of the province’s fastest-growing professions.

Marnie Mitchell, CEO of the BC Pharmacy Association, says that the use of pharmaceuticals continues to grow by about 10% a year, partly because of rising rates of chronic diseases and the increased availability of drugs to treat them.

She also notes, however, that while some of the increase might be attributable to conditions associated with an aging population, younger people are facing a growing number of chronic conditions ranging from hypertension and high cholesterol to Type-2 diabetes.

“That part is a little concerning, but there are more treatments available, so people are able to manage those conditions fairly effectively on the whole.”

The growing need for medication has increased growth in the profession. Mitchell said that growth in the number of prescriptions dispensed in B.C. has continued to outpace growth in the number of new pharmacies, resulting in pharmacies being open longer hours and filling more prescriptions.

The number of registered pharmacists in B.C. has risen by 23% over the past five years to 4,800 from 3,900 in 2006. The only other sectors growing faster include human resources and registered massage therapy (see story, page X). Both have grown 30% in the past five years. Accounting has also continued to see consistent growth.

SUCCESS STORY

How Lara Kozan went from yoga student to teacher to founding partner of one of the Lower Mainland’s largest yoga studio chains

BY NOA GLOUBERMAN

Although Lara Kozan has long aspired to be an entrepreneur, she hasn’t always been into yoga. The latter only became a passion after she’d obtained degrees in psychology and business administration and moved to the West Coast from Saskatchewan in 1998.

“I grew up doing dance and gymnastics, as well as fitness training,” says the founding partner of YYoga, which, since its launch in 2007, has opened numerous highly successful, upscale yoga studios around the Lower Mainland and offers yoga teacher training through its YYoga Teachers’ College in Vancouver. “Yoga wasn’t really on the radar until I got to Vancouver. But as soon as I tried it I was hooked – I didn’t want to miss a single day of class.”

Kozan’s enthusiasm for the ancient Indian discipline, which is said to offer myriad physical, mental and spiritual benefits, led her eventually to become a certified yoga instructor. Shortly thereafter she began offering a corporate yoga program to staff at Vancouver’s Nettwerk Music Group.

Among the Nettwerk employees at Kozan’s classes was CEO Terry McBride, who not only discovered a love for yoga but also a budding business relationship with his instructor.