Reports: University of Utah opens pharmacy education, research center

NEW YORK — The University of Utah's College of Pharmacy has opened a new research organization designed to encourage collaboration and interaction, according to published reports.

The Salt Lake City-based Deseret News reported on the opening of the L.S. Skaggs Pharmacy Institute, a 150,000-sq.-ft. facility that includes open lab space.

The facility is named for benefactor Leonard Samuel Skaggs, a Utah businessman and philanthropist who died of natural causes on March 21 at the age of 89 years and whose ALSAM Foundation donated more than $50 million of the institute's total cost of $75 million. Skaggs toured the facility days before he died.

Skaggs inherited his father's 11 drug stores in 1949 and grew the business to include 202 stores and 39 supercenters in 21 states, according to the newspaper. That business eventually grew into American Stores, which included Safeway, Albertsons, Alpha Beta, Longs Drugs, Payless Drug Stores and others. Rite Aid acquired Payless in 1996, while CVS Caremark acquired Longs in 2008.