Nearly Half of Bulgarians Would Buy Medicines Online, 15 Municipalities Have No Pharmacies

About 42% of adult Bulgarians, or about 50% of internet users, would like to purchase online medications prescribed by a doctor, shows nationally representative survey of the Market Links agency, conducted among 1,000 people. It’s results will be announced in detail today at an online discussion dedicated to e-Healthcare and organized by Capital newspaper.

Currently, only over-the-counter medicinal products can be traded online in Bulgaria.

Both scenarios - ordered online to be received at an address at home or in a pharmacy , are almost equally attractive to people, noted in an interview for the "Before All" talk show Stanislava Chipova, Director of Market Research at Market Links agency.

The 18-34 age group and those living in a big city are more interested in getting the drugs ordered online in a pharmacy, according to the study data. "These are people who would not wait hours and days for delivery, but would drop over to the nearest pharmacy and take their medication."

About 40% of residents of smaller settlements would be willing to buy medications online, both with home delivery and by receiving the products in a pharmacy, Chipova said.

The pandemic showed that this issue is on the agenda and has to be resolved, lawyer Plamen Tushanov, President of the Bulgarian Association for The Protection of Patients, told BNR.

In his words, just like the issues of e-prescriptions and electronic referrals for Covid patients have been resolved, so there are issues that need to be resolved quickly, not to be put on hold for months and years.

There are no pharmacies in more than 15 municipalities – that's about 50,000 people who do not have access to pharmaceutical care, Towsanov pointed out.

According to him, the access to medicines online should be considered within a broader framework and include more special dietary foods for medical purposes, as well as medical products for specific groups of patients.

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