Unregistered medicinal products
UNREGISTERED MEDICINAL PRODUCTS
Saules aptieka has specialised in the procurement of unregistered medicines for nearly 20 years. Clinics and individual patients are provided with medicines that are not available in other pharmacies in Latvia. Since Latvia’s accession to the European Union, the number of such orders has increased significantly.
Our credo – if medicines are sold in one of the European countries, they must also be available to the patient here in Latvia.
In order to put this credo into practice, the team of Saules Aptieka also consist of pharmacists with education obtained abroad and excellent knowledge of foreign languages.
Why is it required to order medicines from other European countries?
The medicine market in Latvia is very small compared to countries like Germany or the United Kingdom. This creates specific conditions in the pharmaceutical sector, which results in a limited range of medicines available in Latvia. Although there are many missing medicines needed for patients in our country, there is a tendency that medicines are still “disappearing” from the Latvian market, causing inconvenience to both patients and doctors. New and innovative medicines are not introduced in the Latvian market, and many medicines to be nationally registered are not registered due to high costs. Therefore, in such situations, ordering medicines from another country is therefore the only way to provide this medicine to the patient in a legally correct manner.
How does the medicine ordering happen?
The mechanism for ordering medicinal products is implemented by a cooperation between doctor, pharmacist, and patient. Over the years, we have developed close cooperation with doctors, who are regularly provided with information on the possibility of ordering medicines that are not available in Latvia for a variety of reasons, and medicines not registered in Latvia from other countries. Whereas doctors inform us about disease diagnoses for which medicines are not available in Latvia.
Patients are often surprised by the doctors’ remark that the medicine will only be available in Saules aptieka, but when they turn to other pharmacies and ask for a particular medicine, they soon come to the understanding that the family doctor has wanted to save the patient’s time since Saules aptieka is the only pharmacy in Latvia where such medicines can be purchased.
