The Ministry of Health of Belarus will strengthen control over the sale of over-the-counter drugs in pharmacies from mid-2012

March 28, Minsk / Svetlana Savko - BELTA /. The Ministry of Health of Belarus will strengthen control over the sale of prescription drugs in pharmacies from mid-2012. This was announced today by the Deputy Minister of Health of Belarus, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Industry Gennady Godovannikov during the republican scientific-practical conference "Medicinal Products of the Republic of Belarus," according to a BELTA correspondent. "From the middle of this year, the Ministry of Health will pay great attention to how pharmacies comply with the rules for selling drugs from prescription and over-the-counter lists," the Deputy Minister informed. According to the Ministry of Health, about 6,000 drug names are registered in Belarus. About a thousand of them are on the over-the-counter list. These include, for example, antipyretics, non-narcotic analgesics, and herbal remedies. These and many other drugs are used for self-treatment and first aid. Starting from July, drugs not included in the list of freely sold drugs can only be purchased with a doctor's prescription. From this time on, violations of the drug sales procedure for pharmacies will be punishable by license revocation. As Igor Kovalchuk, General Director of RUP "Belpharmatsiya," stated, additional training on drug sales has been conducted for specialists in state-owned pharmacies, including warnings about responsibility for dispensing drugs without a prescription. According to him, internal control over compliance with current legislation regulating drug sales will be ensured. RUP "Belpharmatsiya" currently includes 149 pharmacies. Igor Kovalchuk added that dispensing prescription drugs strictly by prescription is a normal global practice. This measure helps prevent uncontrolled drug intake. "The state pharmacy network primarily pursues social goals, including the prevention of irresponsible self-medication," he emphasized. In turn, private pharmacies also consider this step justified and confirm their readiness to strictly adhere to the rules for dispensing drugs by prescription. For example, the "Planeta zdorovya" pharmacy chain reported that they have developed a special computer program for this purpose, which allows a pharmacist to immediately determine whether a drug is dispensed by prescription or not. At the same time, "Planeta zdorovya" expresses concern about how ready doctors, who will have to write significantly more prescriptions, will be for the innovations. Private pharmacies do not rule out an increase in customer complaints. According to Natalia Kovaleva, Head of the Retail Sales Department of OOO "Iskamed," pharmacies in this network have long been warning customers to avoid misunderstandings that from the second half of the year, drugs from the prescription list will only be sold with a prescription. -0-