Mr John Coppock OAM

Mr John Coppock OAM has been a pharmacist and leader of the pharmacy profession for almost 70 years. He was a graduate of The Victorian College of Pharmacy which is today’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University.

He was a community pharmacy proprietor for 36 years in Richmond and Malvern. Mr Coppock was recognised as an innovative and patient-centric pharmacist with a passion for expanding the role of community pharmacy in the provision of quality healthcare.

Mr Coppock has had many roles with the governing bodies of the profession throughout Victoria and Australasia. He saw these roles as opportunities to have a positive impact across the profession for the benefit of all patients and the pharmacists providing community- and hospital-based pharmaceutical care.

He was Chairman of Pharmaceutical Defence Limited, which is the professional indemnity insurance organisation in support of 31,000 pharmacists throughout Australia, from 1972 to 2011 and was a Director and then Chairman of APP Co which is the owner and publisher of the Australian Journal of Pharmacy from 1986 to 2013.

Mr Coppock was a catalyst for the establishment of the Pharmacists’ Support Service in Victoria which supports the professional journey and helps address the mental health challenges facing all members of the profession. It is now an independent national organisation in which Mr Coppock was made a Director in 2010 and President in 2014 until his retirement in 2023.

Mr Coppock has remained closely involved with the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences through various roles on the Foundation Board and alumni organisations. He received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in 2015, and in the 2022 Australia Day Honours, he was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for “service to pharmacy in Australia”.