Bulgaria to legalise online sale of OTC drugs

2012-01-16



The Bulgarian authorities are about to amend Decree 28, which pertains to the organisation of the activities of pharmacies, in order to legalise the online sale of OTC drugs for pharmacies and drugstores.
For this, pharmacies will have their own dedicated websites, which a contain data on the owner and manager of the pharmacy, the exact names and prices of the products, shipping costs, the method of payment and the manner in which the customer may return the product.
Online pharmacies will be linked to the Bulgarian Drug Agency and will be subject to inspection by the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union.
At present, the law which governs distance sales of OTC pharmaceuticals in Bulgaria is contradictory. The online sales of OTC drugs in Bulgaria is allowed by the Consumer Protection Law amended in March 2011, according to which “the distance sale of Rx medicines is forbidden”. It means that the distance sale (online, by post or over the telephone) of OTC drugs, homeopathic products and dietary supplements is actually allowed. However, the Medicinal Products Act, amended in December 2009, explicitly forbade online sales of Rx drugs yet did not clearly forbid the online sale of OTC drugs, thus implicitly allowing the procedure.

More information available in the broader view: online sales of medicines operate in all CEE countries