About Us

founded by and for pharmacists.

iRx Investments is the first and only private equity firm founded by and for pharmacists.

We are dedicated to growing the wealth and securing the futures of our pharmacist members. We believe that independent pharmacy is a crucial and growing component of our health care system and should be a source of significant wealth for pharmacy owners. However, until now, pharmacists were unable to significantly participate in the wealth created by private equity investments in pharmacy.

iRx Investments is led and run by experienced pharmacists, entrepreneurs and finance leaders. Collectively, we have over a century of experience building and operating pharmacies and arranging business financings at various levels. Our mission is to help independent pharmacy owners to access the true value of their businesses without giving up their independence.

We are a fund, not a chain. 

The independent pharmacist is our customer, not our target.

The pharmacist makes the biggest gain and achieves financial independence. Private capital has a role to play to enable the pharmacists to get higher valuations. By investing your pharmacy profitability in iRx Investments, you gain higher after-tax cashflow, much greater valuation of your pharmacy and substantially higher liquidity enabling you to retire at any time, a little at a time or stay with your pharmacy and grow it.

You continue to own your pharmacy. You will never have a boss. You can keep your banner, wholesaler and buying group. You will just be wealthier.

Meet the Team

  • Laura Weyland

    Laura Weyland is a pharmacy grad from University of Toronto. She has been a licensed pharmacist for over 35 years with extensive experience in community pharmacy. For 30 years she has owned and operated several Shoppers Drug Mart franchises and currently she practices part time in an independent pharmacy in Toronto. She was also on the Council for the Ontario College of Pharmacists for 8 years, culminating in becoming President of OCP for 2 consecutive terms-the only woman to have accomplished that.

  • Mark Walker

    Mark Walker is a lawyer and software executive. He has degrees in Pharmacology from Western and Law from Osgoode Hall and was the recipient of the Margaret P. Hyndman Prize in Business Law. He practised law at Gowlings and later litigated before the Federal Courts before leaving private practice for opportunities in Music Publishing and Technology. He has built, led and sold numerous technology companies in Canada and the US. He is currently the CEO of Nue IO, a venture-backed software company in Silicon Valley.

  • Yasu Fujita

    Yasu Fujita is a seasoned Management Consultant and SaaS Business Executive. He holds a Masters of Science in Engineering and has focused his career on Business Transformation and Leadership. Over the past three decades, Yasu has scaled operations and enhanced team performance, particularly noted during his tenure as COO of a start-up which he led to a successful exit. His expertise in planning and business process development has been pivotal in driving companies from inception to multi-million dollar valuations.

  • Maurizio Milani

    Maurizio Milani is an executive and former investment banker. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the Catholic University of Milan and a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business. Over his career he has been involved as either an advisor or a principal with many mergers and acquisitions and capital transactions. As a Chief Financial Officer he provided strategic and financial leadership to several technology start-ups and scale-ups. He’s currently CFO of a clean tech company and of a SaaS inventory management business.