Canadian and American Pharmacies

Canadian Pharmacies

In Canada, there are more than 7 thousand retail pharmacies, and for the year they dispense about 300 million prescriptions each. About 30% of the total are individual pharmacies. Each such pharmacy daily dispenses medications with an average of 130 prescriptions. Approximately 57% of the total number of Canadian pharmacies are pharmacy stores, which are part of branded pharmacy chains based on franchising, and another 13% of pharmacies are located in grocery stores. Canada’s largest pharmacy network – ShoppersDrugMart.

This network was created in 1962, and today it includes more than 1.2 thousand pharmacies operating under the brands of Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix. Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies have a convenient location, excellent service and a wide range of drugs, and they enjoy great consumer confidence. In 2011, the annual turnover of the Shoppers Drug Mart network was about $10.5 million. In addition to drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies sell health and beauty products, cosmetics and perfumes, seasonal goods, household chemicals, stationery, hygiene products, household items and even products.

Most pharmacies of this network are open until 22.00 or until midnight, and some pharmacies are open around the clock. The second largest pharmacy chain in Canada is Rexall, it includes about 1.1 thousand. drugstores under several brand names.

Features of the assortment

In recent years, a national drug ranking has been approved in the provinces of Canada. According to this format, all drugs that are to be sold only in pharmacies are divided into 3 groups:

• non-narcotic prescription drugs;
• funds to be dispensed in pharmacies “over the counter” (as recommended by the pharmacist), without the possibility of self-selection by the consumer;
• non-prescription drugs that are to be sold only in pharmacies that the patient can choose and buy on their own, without the recommendation of a pharmacist.

Thanks to this ranking today, some drugs can be bought in food self-service stores, but to expand the range of drugs in grocery stores, you need to open a pharmacy section and include a pharmacist in the staff. Canadian pharmacies sell medications made in Canada. Almost every pharmacy has a cheaper equivalent — generics. The difference in price between the original drug and the generic can be from 20 to 80%. Usually, the doctor prescribes generics at the request of the patient, but the pharmacist can also pick up a generic drug instead of the original by the patient request. In Canada, the same drugs in different pharmacies may cost differently, and some drugs in smaller pharmacies are much cheaper than in large chains.

Pharmacies in America

Every pharmacy has a computer system. It stores data about each patient who came to the pharmacy, records those drugs that were purchased. If the patient has insurance, then it pays 15% of the number of drugs, but if he takes a lot of drugs, for example, 4-5 monthly, then he pays most of it himself. The computer contains all the information about the patient: what he took earlier, and what takes now. After any sale of medications, a label is issued with the name of the drug, the physician’s data, and the pharmacist who sold the drugs.

A distinctive feature of the American pharmacy is that it lacks a warehouse of medications, the patient coming to the pharmacy makes an order, and at this moment this order is transferred to the distributor company using the modem, which brings the necessary medications the next day.

As a rule, only one pharmacist works in a pharmacy. The duties of the pharmacist include consulting the visitor on various issues, explaining the drug risk.

Nowadays, there are 40 distributors in the USA. The total volume of sales of medications is 700 billion dollars a year. Most often, only drugs sold directly in the United States are produced in the States. There are cases when Canadian medications were sold, as for the European market, the main thing is that a company willing to sell European pharmacy should have its own production capacity, this is the main problem because not all European firms are capable of that.