St. Joseph Drug Powered by SUGI expands its health, beauty and wellness concept just four months after opening its first store.
Pharmacies have traditionally been places we visit when we need something: medicine for a headache, vitamins for the family, a prescription filled on the way home.
But increasingly, the pharmacy is becoming something more.
A place to discover products for everyday health. A destination for personal care. A space where beauty and wellness sit alongside medicines and other essentials.
That is the idea behind St. Joseph Drug Powered by SUGI (SJS), which has opened its second store at Eastwood City, just four months after launching its first branch at One Ayala Mall in Makati.
The new store brings the partnership between AC Health, St. Joseph Drug and Japan’s SUGI Holdings to a new community, combining the local pharmacy’s experience with SUGI’s Japanese-inspired approach to drugstore retail and wellness.
For shoppers, that means a pharmacy experience that extends beyond the prescription counter.
A pharmacy with a wider lens
At SJS Eastwood, customers can find medicines and everyday pharmacy essentials alongside a curated selection of Japanese health, beauty, personal-care and wellness products.
The store also carries S-Select, SUGI’s private-label range, as well as other products sourced from Japan.
The concept reflects a broader way of looking at health: not only as something we attend to when we are sick, but as something we support through everyday choices.
That could mean finding products for skin and personal care, exploring wellness items, or simply having convenient access to trusted pharmacy essentials in one place.
For AC Health, the expansion also reflects its effort to develop pharmacy formats that respond to changing consumer needs.
“We hope to share more of the Japanese approach to health and wellness with Filipino customers,” said Katsunori Sugiura, Representative Director and President of SUGI Holdings Co., Ltd., describing the concept as a combination of quality products and attentive service.
Where Japanese and Filipino pharmacy traditions meet
SJS was created through a strategic partnership among three distinct healthcare and retail perspectives.
St. Joseph Drug brings its experience in Philippine community pharmacy, particularly in North and Central Luzon. SUGI Holdings contributes its Japanese drugstore and wellness retail expertise. AC Health brings the wider healthcare ecosystem behind the partnership.
The result is a concept that attempts to marry familiarity with something new.
“For us, this is more than just opening another branch. It is another step toward our ambition of making quality healthcare more accessible while providing a better, more holistic pharmacy experience for Filipino consumers.” said Atty. Yet Abarca, President and CEO of AC Health Pharma. “This is an important step forward for a concept built on the combined strength of our dear partners: St. Joseph Drug’s trusted community presence, Sugi’s Japanese retail and wellness expertise, and AC Health’s broader healthcare ecosystem. “
For shoppers accustomed to the neighborhood pharmacy, there is still the essential role of access to medicines and everyday health needs. But the Japanese-inspired retail approach adds another layer: a more curated environment where health, personal care and wellness products can be explored together.
That intersection is perhaps what makes SJS interesting—not as a replacement for the traditional pharmacy, but as another way of imagining what the pharmacy can become.
Growing with the community
For Dorotea “Gigi” Cruz, Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Drug, the Eastwood opening is also about becoming part of a new community.
The first SJS branch at One Ayala provided an opportunity to introduce the concept to consumers. Four months later, the Eastwood location gives the partnership another setting in which to learn what Filipino shoppers want from a modern pharmacy.
And perhaps that is the most important measure of any new wellness concept: whether it becomes useful in people’s everyday lives.
Because health doesn’t happen only inside hospitals and clinics.
It happens at home, at work, in our routines and in the small decisions we make every day.
Sometimes, it also begins with something as ordinary as walking into a pharmacy.
READ: AC Health honors longstanding partnerships, shared impact in Client Appreciation Night
A new stop for everyday wellness
Located at the Ground Floor of Olympic Heights, Eastwood City, the new SJS store is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
For Eastwood residents, workers and visitors, it adds another option for accessing medicines, personal care products and everyday wellness essentials—with a distinctly Japanese-inspired retail experience.
And for the growing pharmacy landscape in the Philippines, it offers a glimpse of where the category may be heading: less about simply dispensing what we need, and more about helping us discover ways to care for ourselves every day.
Joyful Wellness Takeaway
Sometimes, better health begins with making everyday care a little more accessible, thoughtful and personal.
*Photo courtesy of AC Health / St. Joseph Drug Powered by SUGI
