AIDS Healthcare Foundation Hell’s Kitchen Pharmacy opens for business

Transcript

This transcript has been lightly edited to remove crosstalk.

Gabriella, AHF pharmacy technician: My name is Gabriella. I'm the pharmacy technician. It's an, an exciting day because it's the ribbon cutting of the new pharmacy.

Fareed Choudry, AHF pharmacist in charge: Hi, I'm Fareed. I'm the pharmacist in charge of the new Hell's Kitchen Pharmacy. I've been working for AHF for about 10 years, and this is our newest venture.

And I live locally here in Hell's Kitchen, and we're very happy to be able to serve the local Hell's Kitchen community with this new pharmacy. It's a two-floor pharmacy. It's beautiful. It's a new construction. So come on and check us out. We're connected to our clinic a block away. We do free PrEP services, and we do HIV treatment clinic. So come check us out.

Dr. Melinda S. Brown, medical director, AHF Hell's Kitchen: I am Dr. Melinda Brown, Medical Director for Hell's Kitchen AHF. And this is an exciting day for our clinic 'cause our patients finally have a pharmacy that is right next door, very easily accessible, so they're able to get their medications and have them near their home.

Marlene LaLota, AHF senior regional director: I'm Marlene LaLota. I'm a Senior Regional Director for AHF. This is one of my projects over the past year or so. And today we're cutting the ribbon to kick off our grand opening so the world knows that we're here. And we're hoping to get everybody to come and get their PrEP, and get their HIV meds, and get their sexual health taken care of.

They're open late till eight o'clock during the week because we know people work, and then they're open on Saturdays as well. The money goes right back into taking care of our patients at our healthcare center and our wellness clinic that's half a block away on the other side of the street.

Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal: The fact that this community will now have a wonderful pharmacy where the driving mission is not profits but service, and 96 cents out of every dollar gets plowed back into the service, is just a, a wonderful thing.

Rasheed Gonga, AHF: Today we're doing the ribbon cutting for our pharmacy here in Hell's Kitchen. This is our first street-level pharmacy. It is about a half a block away from our clinic and wellness center, so the patients will be able to pick up their medications the same day that they see the providers. I'm super excited to be here.

Jomil Luna, AHF: This is a monumental moment for us at AHF. It's been so many years in the making, as you all know, right? If you're part of the community, you've seen the growth, you've seen how much hard work and how many special people are part of AHF, right? All these years, right? Just from where we started at 475 Atlantic Avenue to now 315 West 50th Street, and now 402 West 50th Street, this is really indication that we are here for the community, right?

Because as everyone in New York City loves to come to this area, especially the LGBTQ+ community, right? Whoo. But this is a space for everyone, and that's why it's so special because as you can see, there are so many rainbow flags all around us, right? So without any further ado, I wanted to introduce Marlene LaLota.

Marlene LaLota: Jomil said it all. We're here for the community. We are in probably the best spot that we could be in, I would say, in the city for the work that we do for HIV/AIDS care, for sexual health, for wellness, for PrEP. Our site down the block, we have about 1,500 patients there now, which is pretty impressive for only two years of being open.

So that tells us that there's a need for us to be here in this community. So we decided, because they were busting at the seams, that we needed to have a dedicated pharmacy for this site. We started looking around in this neighborhood for a place where we could build a pharmacy, and this space came up, and it was made...

This whole building was renovated. This used to be four separate buildings on this corner, and they made it one building, and this was gonna be a cafe. So that's why it has the two levels. It was gonna be like you order your food downstairs, and then you go up and eat kinda like Starbucks and some of the other places.

So it had a hood in it, and it was set up that way. So I came and looked at it, and I fell in love with it. And so we had to do a lot of renovation to make it into what it is now. Not everybody was 100% on board with this type of model because it's very non-traditional. But we had to say, “This is Hell's Kitchen. This is where we need to be.” And this pharmacy is very cool looking, and we think people are really gonna like it. So we're excited. We've been open now for a few weeks, and the, it's growing already. We're here to serve the community.

We have an amazing pharmacist who I want to come over here. Fareed. That I've worked with. I'll make him blush now. And he's in charge, so I want him to tell you what it's all about.

Fareed Choudry: Hi, everyone. Thank you for coming. I did not know I was gonna be speaking either. Woo. But thank you. This is a great turnout. So my name is Fareed, for who don't know. I have worked for AHF now for about 10 years. I live in the community. I live two blocks away. Don't tell my boss.

But- so I'm very happy to have all the reps here, and ha- have this pharmacy open. It's a very unique pharmacy. It's a dual-door pharmacy. This is our seventh pharmacy in New York, and this is our second pharmacy in New York Manhattan. So we're very excited to service the local community and have people from our prevention teams and treatment teams and our clinics servicing through this pharmacy. So looking forward to it.

Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal: Hi, everyone. I'm Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal. I represent the Upper West Side, part of Hell's Kitchen. I'm chair of the Housing Committee. I've been in the Assembly for a long time, and during that time, I have worked closely with AHF, and especially with Rasheed, on numerous issues, including prior authorization for HIV drugs, eliminating that.

Woo. Woo. 340B program, which has been, which was designed to help smaller pharmacies, and it's been a problem. We've worked on it- And of course, I'm a big proponent of LGBTQ+ rights. I've been involved in helping distribution of PrEP. And I wanna say that this is the perfect place for this pharmacy. So not only because 315 West 50th is right nearby, which I toured with Rasheed a couple years ago but because this is New York City.

The big pharmacies have pushed out the little guy, and you used to see huge Duane Reade, CVS, all of them push out the independents. And so the fact that this pharmacy is here serving all New Yorkers, the fact that ninety six cents of every dollar paid here is plowed back into AHF is remarkable. It's a wonderful model, and of course it's working beautifully.

AHF has done so many great things around the country, in the world. And I'm proud to have you in in Manhattan. Donald Trump... I shouldn't say that. Who, the felon in the White House has decided that we shouldn't fund any HIV research, any HIV services globally. And as a result, people are literally dying.

So don't forget November 3rd, little public service announcement. But also, Manhattan, this city is where we fight back, and AHF has been on the front lines caring for people with HIV and AIDS. Let's keep it going until there's no more need for HIV/AIDS medication. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Jacob Golden, on behalf of Assembly Member Tony Simone: All right. Hello, everyone. My name is Jacob Golden. I am here on behalf of Assemblymember Tony Simone, who represents Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen. He asked me to join today because this is such a special site. We were speaking earlier about how critical it is that this is located, what, one block? Two? Two from their intake facility, and reducing the barriers for folks to get the medication that they need instead of having to travel by subway or by bus.

And Assemblymember Simone is deeply in the fight to end the stigma, to ensure that people are educated on prevention and treatment. He recently, alongside State Senator Erik Bottcher, introduced a bill to end the ban on adult use bathhouses to ensure that people are educated and are able to understand what their risks are and how to prevent transmission.

And so I wanna thank everyone here today. We are so excited to welcome AHF in this new pharmacy today. Thank you all.

Jomil Luna: All right, and at this point, we're actually gonna do the ribbon cutting, right? All right, so everybody line up.

[Ribbon cutting]

Jomil Luna: Feel free to make yourselves at home. And then at 4:00, boxes opens if anybody wants to go over there. And at 6:00, we have a program tonight, all right? Thank you all for coming.