Community Pharmacy

A community pharmacy is a retail store that provides prescription drugs and other health-related products.

A community pharmacy is traditionally considered a health care institution, and its activity is formulated as “providing pharmaceutical assistance to the population.” Pharmaceutical assistance includes a procedure for consulting a patient in order to determine the most effective, safe and economically viable course of treatment.

A community pharmacy can carry out the following functions:

• sale of ready-made medicines (including homeopathic medicines) to the population according to prescriptions and without prescriptions, healthcare institutions according to requirements or requests;
• the manufacture of medicines according to prescriptions of doctors and the requirements of healthcare institutions, the manufacture of intra-pharmacy blanks in accordance with the approved prescriptions and the packaging of medicines and herbal raw materials with their subsequent sale;
• dispensing medicines free of charge or at a discount to certain groups of the population in accordance with the current legislation of the United States and on the basis of agreements concluded with the territorial health authorities, medical institutions and insurance companies;
• sale of medicinal plant materials in factory packaging; medical products (in particular, patient care items, medical equipment, including preventive supplies, diagnostic products, treatment and prophylactic linen, hosiery, bandages, childcare items, first-aid kits and others); disinfectants; personal hygiene products (in particular, skin, hair, aromatic oils and others); optics (in particular, finished glasses, eyewear, and others); mineral waters (natural and artificial); medical, children’s and dietary nutrition (in particular, nutritional supplements for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes and others); cosmetic and perfumery products (hereinafter referred to as goods permitted for dispensing from pharmacy organizations);
• providing the public with the necessary information on the proper use and storage of medicines at home;
• providing medical workers with other necessary information about the drugs available at the pharmacy, as well as about new drugs;
• providing first aid;
• providing advice to ensure responsible self-medication.