Junhyuk “Jay” Choi had a dream of opening his own pharmacy. That is why he enrolled into Northeastern University’s doctor of pharmacy program.
The experiential nature of Northeastern’s education allowed Choi to work at all kinds of pharmacies — large retailers such as Walgreens and CVS, at a hospital and at an independent pharmacy in Boston’s Chinatown — for his internships and co-ops.
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall prescribed to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder last year, Choi took notice. He started seeing the same patients visit the pharmacy he worked at as often as twice a day — hopeful to catch a restock and fill their prescriptions.
“The moment I saw those patients’ eyes desperate to get their medication on time, I thought I should do something about it,” he says. “So that’s how I made up my mind to start this journey.”
Choi, who is now in the third year of the PharmD program, is in the process of launching Med Finder, an application that would allow customers access their prescription information, check the availability of the drug at nearby independent pharmacies, and send a request to fill the prescription to the place that has it in stock.
Med Finder recently won Choi third place and a cash prize of $1,500 in Northeastern’s Fall 2023 Husky Startup Challenge.
