Czech Health Ministry considers per-pill sales of medicines

2012-01-20



The Czech Ministry of Health is working on a proposal, according to which drugs in pharmacies could be sold by individual pills rather than by whole packs, the country’s news agency Mediafax reports.
It will be a while before such a solution could be officially introduced, as the ministry wants to make sure that everything is in place to protect the patient and ensure the safety of medicines dispensed in this way.
The ministry hopes that selling drugs by pills would reduce medicines wastage and – subsequently – lower the expenditure of health insurance companies on drugs.
The idea has been criticised by the Czech Chamber of Pharmacists, according to which the European market is not prepared for selling drugs by individual tablets. One consequence of intruding this type of dispensation could be the increased occurrence of counterfeit products since the medicines control system is based on the original, outer packaging, the Chamber says.
The Chamber also believes that the by-pill sale of medicines would not bring significant savings. On contrary, it would rather generate additional costs because pharmacists would have to provide packaging for individual pills as well as information leaflets with place of origin and batch number details, not mentioning a need to secure sterile environment in which the drugs could be unpacked.