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Safeway Pharmacy

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- In a major personnel shift in West Coast chain pharmacy management, Dave Fong has joined Safeway as vice president of corporate pharmacy after a three-decade career at Longs Drug Stores.

Fong, a highly regarded pharmacy advocate and one of the profession's most articulate spokesmen, joined Longs in 1973 as a pharmacy intern and rose to become senior vice president of pharmacy before the chain split pharmacy management and managed care among several executives to accommodate its growing size and complexity. In his last role at Longs, Fong was group vice president of pharmacy managed care and compliance, as well as chief privacy officer.

At Safeway, Fong fills a management void created by the retirement of former vice president of corporate pharmacy Rich Cancilla, a 10-year Safeway veteran who became head of pharmacy operations in 1995. In a memo to the company's divisional heads, Safeway senior vice president of non-perishables David Lee praised both Cancilla and his replacement.

"Rich oversaw the re-engineering and centralization of Safeway's pharmacy operation, contributing to the realized substantial growth in pharmacy sales volumes and net profitability in the post-re-engineering period," Lee noted. "Under Rich's leadership, Safeway Pharmacy has grown to become one of the top 10 drug retailers in North America.

"We are fortunate," he added, "to have someone with Dave's talent and experience join our Safeway team."

Fong, who is treasurer of the California State Board of Pharmacy, will oversee a sprawling network of more than 1,200 supermarket pharmacies in the United States and Canada. Those pharmacies, generated more than $2.6 billion in pharmacy sales last year, or 7.3 percent of Safeway's total sales for all 1,812 of its supermarkets and combo stores.

Replacing Fong at Longs is Mike Cantrell, a pharmacist and attorney Dave Fong who has been promoted to vice president of professional services. Cantrell joined Longs in 1987 as a staff pharmacist and was promoted to pharmacy manager before moving into the corporate office as a staff attorney in 1999.

"He worked very, very closely with Dave and oversaw many pharmacy projects" as corporate counsel, explained Longs spokeswoman Phyllis Proffer. In his new role, she said, Cantrell will oversee managed care, pharmacy systems and compliance, as well as pharmacy legislative and regulatory affairs.

"The same people who reported to Dave will report to Mike," Proffer said.

Cantrell will continue to report to Bruce Schwallie, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer. Chris Gong remains vice president of pharmacy operations at Longs, reporting to executive vice president and chief operations officer Richard Dreiling.

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