Community Pharmacies - Increasing Access to Medicines and Drugs

The recent Regulation, No. 284/MENKES/PER/III/2007, issued by the Minister of Health will in effect provide an opportunity to current retailers of medicines and drugs to upgrade their status to that of a Community Pharmacy. This will have a number of impacts but primarily the Regulation will provide retailers with legitimacy in their businesses and simultaneously provide a regulatory framework for a previously, to all intents and purposes, an unregulated part of the pharmaceutical industry.

The basic objectives of the Regulation are to ensure that any retailer wanting to upgrade their status can do so and furthermore to protect the community from unscrupulous retailers by mandating that all pharmacy services are provided properly and correctly.