28 March, Minsk /Svetlana Savko - BELTA/. The Ministry of Health of Belarus will strengthen control over the sale of non-prescription drugs in pharmacies from mid-2012. This was announced today by Gennady Godovannikov, Deputy Minister of Health of Belarus and Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Industry, during the republican scientific-practical conference "Medicinal Products of the Republic of Belarus", as reported by BELTA correspondent. "From the middle of this year, the Ministry of Health will pay great attention to how pharmacies comply with the rules for the sale of prescription and non-prescription drugs," the Deputy Minister informed. According to the Ministry of Health, about 6,000 types of drugs are registered in Belarus. About a thousand of them are on the non-prescription 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. From July, it will be possible to purchase drugs not included in the list of freely available for sale only with a doctor's prescription. From that time on, violations of the drug sale procedure will be fraught with license revocation for pharmacies. As Igor Kovalchuk, General Director of RUP "Belpharmatsiya", stated, additional training on the sale of medicinal products has been conducted for specialists of state pharmacies, including warnings about responsibility for dispensing drugs without a prescription. According to him, internal control over compliance with the current legislation regulating the procedure for the sale of medicinal products will be ensured. RUP "Belpharmatsiya" currently includes 149 pharmacies. Igor Kovalchuk added that dispensing prescription drugs strictly by prescription from pharmacies 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 medicines by doctor's prescription. For example, the "Planeta zdorovya" pharmacy chain reported that they have developed a special computer program specifically for this purpose, which allows a pharmacist to immediately determine whether a medicine 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 the number of customer complaints. According to Natalia Kovaleva, head of the retail department of "Iskamed" LLC, pharmacies in this chain have long been warning customers to avoid misunderstandings that from the second half of the year, prescription drugs will only be sold upon presentation of a prescription. -0-

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