Lower house of the Polish parliament voted in favor of the project “Pharmacies for pharmacists”

The Sejm (the lower house of the parliament) adopted the amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law which fundamentally modifies rules of granting a pharmacy license. Now the bill will be passed to the Senate (the upper house of the parliament). If the Senate also votes the draft into law, it will  have a fundamental impact upon entrepreneurs operating on the pharmacy market.

According to the draft, a pharmacy license will not be granted if a municipality has less than 3.000 inhabitants for one pharmacy or if there is another pharmacy built in a distance less than 500 meters measured in a straight line. What is more, only the following subjects will have the right to obtain a license to operate a pharmacy:
•    pharmacists (sole traders) authorized to practice;
•    registered partnerships or professional partnership whose object of economic activity is exclusively operating a pharmacy and whose partners are pharmacists authorized to practice.

The amendment provides also restrictions in relation to the number of operated pharmacies. Briefly, as a matter of principle it will not be possible to operate more than four pharmacies open to the public.