Vermont's first pharmacy school could start up next fall, thanks to a million-dollar grant from the Vermont Economic Progress Council.

The council's executive director Fred Kenney says the plan is for the satellite campus of the Albany College of Pharmacy to open in a building that formerly housed Bombardier Capital in Colchester.

A college spokesman says the school is to open in September with about 80 students, and grow to 450 students during the next five years.

The school is also expected to generate 50 to 75 faculty and staff jobs. And it's hoped its graduates will help alleviate a chronic shortage of pharmacists in Vermont.