Pharmacy (shop)

A pharmacy (also called drugstore in

Most drugs are commercially made at factories and dispensed by pharmacies. Drugs that are not commercially made must be compounded from other ingredients. In 1930, 75% of medications were compounded, but by 1970 only 1% were compounded.[1]

Community pharmacies (drugstores)

In most countries, a retail outlet for

Likewise, many pharmacies are now rather grocery store-like in their design. In addition to medicines and prescriptions, many now sell a diverse arrangement of additional items such as

Community pharmacies offer a unique added value by building direct relationships with their customers. They are able to provide more personalized, dedicated care to local members of their community and even offer enhanced services such as Medication Therapy Management (MTM), Medication Synchronization, and compounding. With the aid of pharmacy management systems and different integrated technologies, these smaller pharmacies are able to keep up with their large-scale competition.

Ethical standards

Community pharmacists’ understanding of ethics,

The International Pharmaceutical Federation has declared their vision of a community-based pharmacist:^[3]

• An expert in pharmaceutical care, pharmacotherapy and health promotion
• A professional communicator with
  healthcare providers
  and decision makers
• Deliver high quality products, services and communication
• Document their work and communicate the outcome to professional colleagues.

Responsibilities

Community-based pharmacists' responsibilities include: checking and dispensing of

It is becoming more common for pharmacists to take on extended roles that provide more clinical care directly to patients as part of a primary care team. There are around 11,400 community pharmacies in England. Many are open for extended hours in the evenings and weekends and they are accessible without appointment.[5]^[6]

In the English NHS there were 438 million visits nationally to community pharmacies for health related reasons in 2015. More than 1 billion prescription items were dispensed in 2012. More than £14 billion is spent on prescribed drugs annually.^[7] Under the 2005 NHS Community Pharmacy contract all community pharmacists in England and Wales provide:^[8]

• Dispensing Service
• Repeat Dispensing Service: This allows the patient to collect regular repeat prescription medicines for an agreed period of time, without having to go back to their GP
• Disposal of Unwanted Medicines.
• Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles.
• Signposting to other Services.
• Support for Self-Care: advice on treating minor illnesses and long term conditions.

Widely available Advanced Services:

• Medicines Use Review & Prescription Intervention.
• New Medicine Service. For patients who have been given their first prescription for a medicine to treat Asthma and COPD, Type 2 diabetes, Hypertension or Anticoagulant Therapy.
• Appliance Use Review Service.
• Flu Vaccination.

Enhanced Services which are not available unless locally commissioned:

• Minimising Adverse Effects and Admissions Related to Medicines.
• Discharge and Transfer Planning.
• Managing Dental Pain.

The introduction of the digital hospital-to-pharmacy referral service, which was to launch in July 2020, as part of the new community pharmacy contract, was postponed to 15 February 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. It will enable hospitals to digitally notify community pharmacies when patients are discharged and may need advice on taking new medicines, and about changes to their prescriptions.^[9]

In 2022 the average pharmacy carried out around 19 consultations per day, averaging 5.6 minutes each - about 65 million consultations across 10,800 pharmacies in the year. ^[10]

Support staff

To help pharmacists be able to take on extended roles, it is common for them to work as part of a team that can include pharmacy technicians, dispensing assistants and counter assistants.^[11]

Ownership

In parts of mainland Europe, the pharmacist is required to own the pharmacy of which she or he is the licensee. Under this arrangement, a pharmacist can be the operator of only a single outlet.^[12] In the UK, 60% of all community pharmacies are owned by companies that own multiple pharmacies.^[13]

In the United States, more than 25% of independent owners have ownership in two or more pharmacies.^[14]

Most of New Zealand's community pharmacies are owner-operated.^[15] In Australia, pharmacists recognise the need to integrate professional pharmacy services into the health system to meet the changing health care needs of the population.^[16]

Society and culture

A survey conducted by PrescribeWellness found that almost half of Americans older than 40 years-old value pharmacies that offer

Since about the year 2000, a growing number of

While most Internet pharmacies sell prescription drugs and require a valid prescription, some Internet pharmacies sell prescription drugs without requiring a prescription.^{[citation needed]} Some customers order drugs from such pharmacies to avoid the "inconvenience" of visiting a doctor, or to obtain medications which their doctors were unwilling to prescribe. However, this practice has been criticized as potentially dangerous, especially by those who feel that only doctors can reliably assess contraindications, risk/benefit ratios, and an individual's overall suitability for use of medication. There also have been reports of such pharmacies dispensing substandard products.^[18]

Of particular concern with Internet pharmacies is the ease with which people, youth in particular, can obtain

Canada is home to dozens of licensed Internet pharmacies, many of which sell their lower-cost prescription drugs to U.S. consumers (who must otherwise pay one of the world's highest drug prices).[19] In recent years, many consumers in the US (and in other countries with high drug costs), have turned to licensed Internet pharmacies in India, Israel, and the UK, which often have even lower prices than in Canada.

In the United States, there has been a push to legalize the importation of medications from Canada and other countries,^{[citation needed]} in order to reduce consumer costs. While in most cases importation of prescription medications violates FDA regulations and federal laws, enforcement is generally targeted at international drug suppliers, rather than consumers. There is no known case of any U.S. citizens buying Canadian drugs for personal use with a prescription, who has ever been charged by authorities.

In Vietnam

According to IQVIA, Vietnam had 55,300 drugstores in 2016, of which 185 belonged to modern drugstore chains.^[20][21] In 2021, the total number of drugstores decreased to 44,600, but the number of drugstores in modern chains increased to 1,600.^[22][23] According to a report by VNDIRECT Securities Company, Vietnam had about 70,000 drugstores in 2022, including 59,000 traditional retail drugstores (accounting for 84%) and 11,000 chain drugstores (accounting for 16%). The revenue of Vietnam's pharmaceutical retail market reached about 80,000 billion VND. According to a report by MBS Securities Company in 2023, the size of Vietnam's pharmaceutical market is about 6-7 billion USD,^[24][25] with more than 3,000 modern chain drugstores.^[26][27]

Gallery

• 
  Interior of the Town Hall Pharmacy in Tallinn, operating continuously from at least 1422
• 
  Convent pharmacy exhibited at the

  Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci

  of Milan
• 
  Contemporary pharmacy in an older building
• 
  19th-century Italian pharmacy
• 
  Classic symbols at the wall of a former German pharmacy
• 
  interior of an unidentified drugstore in Toledo, Ohio, United States, 1900s. A large cigar counter and a long bar with seating is featured. The photo was taken by Charles F. Mensing around 1900.
• 
  Typical American drug store with a soda fountain, about 1905
• 
  Drug store restoration c. 1920 at Collingsworth County Museum and Art Center
• 
  Modern pharmacy in Norway
• 
  A branch of Walgreens, a pharmacy chain in the United States
• 
  Outside an

  independent pharmacy in South Plainfield, New Jersey
• 
  A pharmacy at night in Nokia, Finland
• 
  A pharmacy in Norway that is part of a shopping mall
• 
  Interior of a pharmacy in Ethiopia
• 
  Houston, Texas

  , on March 20, 1974
• 
  A pharmacy in Nanning, Guangxi, China

See also

• Dispensary – Office that dispenses medications
• Apothecary – Former name for a pharmacist

References