After years of increasing metrics and mounting pressure in pharmacy standards, a University of California San Diego study confirms the Pharmacy Guild/IAM’s growing concerns for pharmacy professionals’ mental health
WASHINGTON, DC – A new study out of the University of California San Diego is reporting the deadly risks of working in the American pharmacy industry.
The study reviewed data from around the country via the National Violent Death Reporting System from 2011 to 2022. The findings included a 21% increase in the likelihood that a pharmacist will die by suicide compared to the general population. And although pharmacy technicians overall had about a 14% lower risk than the general population, female pharmacy technicians had a 22% higher risk of dying by suicide.
“This study confirms what pharmacy professionals have felt for over a decade. Our jobs are now much more difficult, stressful, and impossible to manage, both physically and mentally, with the limited time and resources given,” said Dr. Shane Jermoniski, cofounder of The Pharmacy Guild/IAM and pharmacist for 18 years. “The effects from chronic understaffing and increased pressure on pharmacy professionals can no longer be ignored for the sake of corporate profits. The evidence is clear: more of our peers are dying, and even more lives will be at stake if we don’t act now.”
The troubling cluster of pharmacist suicides in Pennsylvania in 2025, including at least two deaths among CVS pharmacists in Lancaster and across the Susquehanna Valley, has highlighted the intense pressures facing professionals in the pharmacy field, further fueling urgent conversations about unsafe workplace conditions. Together, these trends suggest that systemic factors such as heavy workloads and high performance pressures in the pharmacy industry, pushed by corporate executives, contribute to increased vulnerability among pharmacy professionals.
The Pharmacy Guild/IAM is fighting to protect the mental and physical well-being of pharmacy professionals by organizing unions and negotiating strong contracts that address the root cause of harm in the industry: corporate greed. Through collective bargaining, the union pushes for safe staffing levels, manageable workloads, and enforceable protections that allow pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to do their jobs safely and sustainably. Beyond the workplace, the Pharmacy Guild/IAM is advocating for stronger workplace policies, destigmatizing access to mental health care, and broader structural reforms in national legislation to prioritize staff and patient safety over corporate profits.
“The Pharmacy Guild/IAM fights to bring actionable change on the ground. With each win, pharmacy professionals are closer to achieving working conditions that protect both our communities and our workforce in a way that is contractually enforceable,” said Dr. Lannie Duong, cofounder of The Pharmacy Guild/IAM and ambulatory care pharmacist of 15 years. “Protecting the mental and physical health of pharmacy professionals must be at the core of our fight because the safety of our patients depends on it. We refuse to put more lives at risk.”
Founded in 2023 by and for front-line pharmacy professionals, The Pharmacy Guild/IAM is a rapidly growing affiliate of the 600,000-strong IAM Union.