CHICAGO — The Food Marketing Institute, Arlington, Va., has formed the FMI Pharmacy Affairs Council to make the voice of supermarket pharmacies, as well as other pharmacies, heard on federal legislative and regulatory issues, said Greg Jones, chairman of FMI’s Pharmacy Services Committee in his opening remarks to the FMI Pharmacy Conference here this week. Jones also is director of pharmacy for Harmon City, West Valley City, Utah. The Pharmacy Conference is co-located with the FMI Show, also being held there this week. The program is being initially funded by a group of 10 association members, and FMI is in the process of hiring a vice president of pharmacy services, who will build and lead the program, Jones said. John Motley, senior vice president of government and public affairs, now heads up the effort and the new vice president will report to him. Motley declined to name the 10 members providing the funding. Supermarkets with pharmacy programs are known to be unhappy with the results of recent Medicare and Medicaid revisions. Motley said FMI is not trying to duplicate services offered by other organizations, “at least not in the beginning.” The association aims to create a program “focused on federal pharmacy policy that enhances the ability of the pharmacy industry and profession to impact that policy. That is the bottom line.” FMI’s members “didn’t like what happened in Medicare. They didn’t like what happened with meth. They didn’t like what happened with Medicaid, and they feel that they need more resources directed here,” he said.