June 29, 2025
By Rachel Scofield
On Wednesday, June 25, a crowd gathered at 641 Hill Road North to celebrate the grand re-opening of Freedom Pharmacy — a local business with a bold mission: to free patients from the constraints of corporate insurance and reconnect them with personalized, transparent care. Located across from the PYAA/PASA sports complex and sharing a building with Mount Carmel Medical Group Pickerington, the pharmacy marked its relaunch with a festive ceremony.
The celebration featured raffle baskets, swag bags for early guests, a local food truck, and tours of the on-site compounding lab, where pharmacists create custom medications for people and pets. But the highlight of the event came when owner Nate Hux took the microphone and spoke from the heart.
“We provide our customers personalization, quality, and transparency,” Hux said. “These very words were posted at the entrance of our pharmacy. It was necessary for us to leave the insurance-based, PBM-controlled world to be able to uphold these core ideals. We prefer to do business directly with people — not with self-serving, data-mining, non-transparent, Fortune 15 corporations. We exist to serve the people — not them.”
Hux then asked Pickerington Mayor Lee Gray to help him “cut the chains” — a symbolic gesture representing Freedom Pharmacy’s break from what he called a failing healthcare system.
“Today, just a little over a week away from our great country’s birthday, we celebrate independence from the forces in our industry that are designed to profit at ours and our patients’ expense,” he said. “Today we celebrate the value of the patient-pharmacist relationship. Today we celebrate freedom in pharmacy.”
The pharmacy’s name is more than a brand — it’s a statement. Originally opened in 1990 by Dale Schultz as Pickerington Pharmacy, the business operated as a traditional independent pharmacy until 2016, when Hux took over. In 2020, he launched Freedom Pharmacy with a new model: cost plus pricing, which means patients pay the wholesale cost of their medication plus a flat fee — with no insurance middlemen and no surprises.
Freedom Pharmacy’s mission also echoes growing national concern over the power of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). A 2024 interim report by the Federal Trade Commission described how the three largest PBMs — which manage nearly 80% of all U.S. prescriptions — are “profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.” The FTC noted that PBMs’ vertical integration allows them to act as both payer and provider, wielding “enormous power and influence” over access to medication. Between 2013 and 2022, roughly ten percent of independent rural pharmacies closed, cutting off vital services to communities with few alternatives.
“We offer the best combination of service, professionalism, and price possible in community pharmacy,” Hux said. “With all of your help we are creating a sustainable business model that provides a great service for our community. That’s all we ever wanted.”
He choked up as he gestured toward his staff.
“These people — I cannot believe I’m this emotional — every day, they make it happen. Thank you all for coming out and witnessing this. Spread the word for us.”
As guests explored the lab, sampled lunch, and collected giveaway bags, the spirit of the event felt clear: Freedom Pharmacy isn’t just reopening a business. It’s reopening a relationship between community and care — one prescription at a time.
