💊 Pharma retail shifts

Brazil’s Congress approved legislation allowing the country’s supermarkets to operate in-house pharmacies and sell over-the-counter and prescription drugs, ending more than two years of debate between the retail and pharmaceutical sectors and their regulators. 

The bill, which the Senate cleared last year and the House approved earlier this month, now awaits ratification by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It permits supermarkets to sell medicine in a designated area subject to requirements similar to those of traditional drug stores, including keeping a licensed pharmacist on staff and meeting sanitary standards. 

Any and all medications (including over-the-counter drugs) must be sold within the pharmacy area and not on regular supermarket shelves. The law also allows supermarkets to…

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