Unión de Farmacias advises not to buy medicines in grocery stores

Santo Domingo, DR

The Union of Pharmacies warned about the risks that people can run when buying medicines in places that lack the technical rigor of pharmacies to dispense such products safely and with the proper guidance of professional pharmacists.
The entity, which groups more than 1,200 pharmacies spread throughout the national territory, revealed that a few years ago, the Ministry of Public Health tried to denaturalize the regulation of medicines to reduce measures and mechanisms to protect patients, thus allowing the distribution of over-the-counter medications in grocery stores, markets, gas stations and other establishments outside the health sector.

“Now that we have seen, with great consternation, reports of human blood being sold in colmado markets, under investigation by Public Health, we consider it appropriate to call the attention of the population to beware of acquiring medicines in unauthorized places,” proclaimed the Union of Pharmacies in a press statement.

For several years, the Union of Pharmacies has been opposed to the denaturalization of the sanitary regulation, which establishes that the dispensing of medicines must be done only in pharmacies authorized by the Ministry, according to technical rigor, sanitary surveillance, and not in any commerce.

They indicated that the norms of hygiene and sanitary surveillance that govern grocery stores, markets, or fuel stations do not comply with the provisions established by the General Law of Health 42-01 regarding the sanitary guarantees required to import, export, elaborate, produce, machine, package, conserve, store, transport, distribute, sell, commercialize and carry out any type of contracting concerning medicines.