Adam Silvertown, shown with his Australian labradoodle Ty, recently launched VetMeds.ca, a pet pharmacy.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
A wave of animal-focused pharmacies is opening in Canada that will give pet owners new options and potential savings when filling prescriptions for their companions.
The market for dispensing pet medications has opened up in recent months after a national distributor and drug makers agreed to let pharmacies widely order from them for the first time after pressure from the Competition Bureau. As well, Ontario is adopting new regulations that will make it easier for pet owners to get prescriptions to take to their pharmacists.
One of the new pharmacies is the Toronto-based VetMeds.ca, launched this fall by pharmacist Adam Silvertown.
About a decade ago, Mr. Silvertown took his dog to see a veterinarian. The dog was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug called trazodone, which is also used by humans. The drug was dispensed at the veterinary clinic and he was handed the bill.
Mr. Silvertown, who also owns Pace Compounding Pharmacy in Toronto, said he hopes veterinarians are open to this new model.EDUARDO LIMA/The Globe and Mail
As a pharmacist, Mr. Silvertown knew the drug and how much it cost. While the dosing for dogs and humans is different, he crunched the numbers and realized he was being charged way more for the dog dose than he would charge a human patient.
“I’m not talking like $10 or $20, it was like a $75 difference,” he said in a recent interview on the top floor of Pace Compounding Pharmacy in Toronto, which he owns. “It was significant.”
He realized there was a business opportunity to launch a pet-focused pharmacy. But as he called around distributors, he hit a dead end. While some drugs – such as trazodone – are used by different species, animal-specific medications weren’t carried by his usual distributors. And distributors that supplied veterinarians wouldn’t work with him.
So he put the idea on the shelf – until last year. He read a series of stories in The Globe and Mail about another pharmacist and a veterinarian who had challenged the restrictive deals between animal-drug distributors and pharmaceutical companies that had excluded pharmacists. And he read a Competition Bureau report – which also cited The Globe’s reporting – that called for the market to open up.
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So Mr. Silvertown contacted the only national distributor of pet medication – Quebec-based CDMV Inc. – and asked to open an account. To his surprise, they said yes.
“There was zero pushback,” he said. “It was like a 180-degree change from almost 10 years ago.”
CDMV spokesperson Brigitte Roy confirmed to The Globe that they are now distributing to pharmacies. She said the distribution follows rules set out by pharmacy and veterinary regulator bodies, as well as the stipulations of CDMV’s contracts with drug manufacturers.
Pet owners can browse items through the VetMeds website and contact the pharmacy to place an order. For medications that require a prescription, a veterinarian must either call or fax the prescription directly to VetMeds.
Mr. Silvertown said veterinarians may at first have been hesitant about this new model, but from what he’s heard so far they are opening up to it.
“My hope is that veterinarians see this as collaboration, because it’s all about the pet getting what they need,” Mr. Silvertown said.
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VetMeds is also the Ontario partner for a new online e-commerce platform called Furble, which sells prescription medications, pet food and other wellness products.
Furble launched last week with pharmacy partners in B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Lisa MacIntyre-Smith, the Halifax-based chief executive officer and co-founder of Furble, said the idea of the company came from people in the veterinary industry who were concerned about how rising costs were straining pet owners.
Ms. MacIntyre-Smith, who was an executive at Canada’s largest chain of veterinary clinics, said the founders were also inspired to create a made-in-Canada solution before international online pet pharmacies – which are more popular in other countries, including the United States – could get a foothold in the Canadian market.
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The Ontario Veterinary Medical Association said it was supportive of working with pharmacies, although it cautioned pet owners to make sure they were ordering from reputable websites and to be extra cautious about any based outside of Canada.
“To keep their pets safe, we always recommend that pet owners use accredited pharmacies and check reliable sources like Health Canada’s guidance on buying drugs online,” the association’s chief executive officer, John Stevens, said in a statement.
Ms. MacIntyre-Smith said she has no concerns about Furble’s sources.
“The medications are coming from the exact same place that veterinary clinics would be getting their medications,” she said.
At the same time as the distribution channels have opened, regulations in Ontario are changing.
The Ontario legislature passed a law in 2024 modernizing the act that covers veterinary professionals. A council of the College of Veterinary Professionals of Ontario has spent the past year drafting new regulations to implement the law, which it submitted to Ontario’s agriculture minister in October.
The new regulations say veterinarians must inform pet owners of their right to ask for a prescription to be taken elsewhere.
The veterinarians can charge a fee for the prescription, which is not capped.
Wendy Chui, shown in 2023, is the owner of PetsDrugMart.ca.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Wendy Chui, a pioneer in the field who owns PetsDrugMart.ca, said a typical fee she has seen from veterinarians is $20 or $30, although she has seen as low as $10 or as high as $70.
She encouraged pet owners to ask veterinarians for their fees and to request prescriptions that can be repeated, if appropriate, so they don’t need to get a new prescription every month.
With the distribution channels cleared for pharmacies, Ms. MacIntyre-Smith said the biggest challenge now is education – for pet owners and for veterinarians.
“Our goal is to try and collaborate as much as possible and work together to do that, because at the end of the day, we’re all there for our pets.”