List of pharmacies

This article is a list of major pharmacies (also known as chemists and drugstores) by country.

Australia

Pharmacies in Australia are mostly independently owned by pharmacists, often operated as franchises of retail brands offered by the three major pharmaceutical wholesalers in Australia: Australian Pharmaceutical Industries (API) and Sigma Pharmaceuticals. A minority of pharmacies are owned by friendly societies, particularly in Victoria and South Australia.

API brands

Symbion brands

Canada

Pharmaprix drugstore in Alma

Defunct chains

China

The key players in the drugstore industry in China are:

  • China Nepstar – Shenzhen-based; China's largest
  • Super-Pharm – Israeli company; had about 65 stores in China as of 2007
  • Watsons – owned by HK-based Hutchison Whampoa

Denmark

In Denmark, all pharmacies are owned by the Association of Danish Pharmacies and controlled by the state. There are two pharmaceutically trained groups with a higher education in the Danish pharmacies: pharmaconomists (Danish: farmakonomer) and pharmacists (farmaceuter). There are also pharmacy technicians (defektricer) who have a vocational training and unskilled laborers/workers (servicemedarbejdere) who perform manual labour.

Germany

Germany is the biggest pharmacy market in Europe with €35 billion, or $46 billion, of revenue each year. In Germany, pharmacies are known as "apotheken". Like France, they are all independently-owned by pharmacists, and like France, there are no pharmacy chains. In hindsight to consumer protection, German law bans chains of apotheken, but generally allows self-employed pharmacists to individually operate a maximum of four outlets, all of which must be in close proximity.

Other types of retailing are strongly opposed to offering the same types of services as an apotheke. These retailers would not have the necessary expertise to provide proper patient care and this has been upheld by the European Court of Justice in its ruling of May 2009. Traditionally in Germany, drugs were not discountable and the entire trade with pharmaceuticals was limited to the single channel of the Apotheke. In 2004 however, the health care reform law GMG (de:GKV-Modernisierungsgesetz) allowed free pricing of OTC products. This led to a significant decrease of OTC prices in competitive areas. Internet and mail-order purchasing of drugs has also become an alternative, but only accounts for about 5% of German pharmaceutical trade.

Online pharmacy DocMorris has been introducing the first licence based chain pharmacy model in Germany in 2007 (as opposed to the current independent pharmacy model). Alongside their brand, they are offering standardized services in their pharmacies, whilst they do not operate or own them. They also offer discounted OTC products. Besides this model, German pharmacies are for the most part organized in wholesaler-based cooperations like LINDA, gesund leben-Apotheken, meine apotheke or vivesco. These cooperations are offering discounts in purchasing and support e.g. in marketing.

Hong Kong

India

Ireland

Israel

A Super-Pharm in Arad, Israel

Macau

Malaysia

Mexico

Netherlands

Pharmacies in the Netherlands are mostly independently owned by pharmacists. In 2011, 31% of all pharmacies were part of one of the following chains:[1]

New Zealand

Norway

An Apotek 1 pharmacy in Oslo, Norway

Philippines

Poland

Puerto Rico

Defunct chains

Singapore

Sweden

Taiwan

Thailand

United Kingdom

Other pharmacies

  • Numark – buying group of over 2,000 independently owned pharmacies in the UK

Internet pharmacies

  • Pharmacy2U – online mail-order pharmacy located in the UK

United States

Many pharmacy chains in the United States are owned and operated by regional supermarket brands, or national big-box store brands such as Walmart. These pharmacies are located within their larger chain stores. The three largest free-standing pharmacy chains in the United States are Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid.

Although not a pharmacy chain, many of the fairly ubiquitous Costco stores include a pharmacy and - in California at least - the pharmacy is available to non-members.

Stand-alone pharmacy chains

Defunct chains

Vatican City

Vietnam

Pharmacy chains

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Lichte toename aantal apotheken — SFK Website" (in Dutch). Sfk.nl. Retrieved 2014-01-21.
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