The Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union wants changes to the law on human medicines. The goal is tighter control over wholesalers. Pharmacies should be able to see how much of a drug each wholesaler has in stock, union chairman Dimitar Marinov told reporters.
He said the union backs some of the changes already proposed, but wants other parts fine-tuned, plus new ideas added to the law.
Right now the special electronic drug-tracking system, known as SESPA, only follows quantities of medicines on the Positive Drug List, and that list is used to decide which drugs are banned from export. Under the new rules, the system would track every prescription drug — a good move, Marinov said, because it would make it easier for patients to get their medicine.
At the moment, neither pharmacists nor pharmacies can see the data in the system, so they don't know how much of a drug each wholesaler holds, Marinov explained. He said some wholesalers hide their real stock levels so they can give priority to pharmacies linked to them. If the changes go through, pharmacies would be able to check for themselves how much stock each wholesaler has.
The union also wants orders for a drug to be placed only once an e-prescription for it already exists. That would stop patients from ordering the same drug at several pharmacies at once, Marinov said. It would also stop cases where a drug gets delivered to several pharmacies but ends up unsold everywhere.
The union backs tighter checks on wholesalers. It also wants every package that reaches a pharmacy to have its verification checked. Right now, Marinov said, there's no guarantee that fake drugs aren't getting into pharmacies. He also called for customs to get access to SESPA, to close off another loophole for abuse.
The law currently bans a single company from making drugs, selling them wholesale, and running more than four pharmacies at the same time. The problem, Marinov said, is that nothing stops a person or company from registering as many other firms as they like and using them to open an unlimited number of pharmacies. He said this is exactly the rule that needs to change, to stop drug supply becoming concentrated in the hands of linked companies.
The union also wants the National Pharmacy Map kept digitally and updated automatically, instead of the current system.
Professor Hristina Lebanova, dean of the pharmacy faculty at the Medical University of Pleven, spoke about the services pharmacies can offer beyond selling medicine. She said this means health services in pharmacies — health promotion, disease prevention and screening for certain major illnesses — aimed at helping patients live better. Bulgarian pharmacies currently offer nine such services, while neighbouring countries offer up to 20, Lebanova said.
The statements came on World Pharmacist Day. The International Pharmaceutical Federation, which has more than 4 million pharmacists as members worldwide, was founded in 1912. This year's theme is "Strengthening pharmacists' role for a healthier future".
The union's secretary general, Svetoslav Krumov, gave figures on the profession itself. As of 1 September 2026, 78% of pharmacists in Bulgaria are women and 22% are men. He said the profession is getting younger, with the biggest growth among pharmacists under 30. Over the past nine months the number of pharmacists has grown by 2.2%, and now stands at 7,824. About 7,000 of them work in pharmacies serving the public. The rest work in hospital pharmacies, drug company offices, institutions and universities.
Bulgaria ranks near the top of the world for pharmacists per head of population, Krumov added. On average there are 10.1 pharmacists per 10,000 people, well above the EU average. Even so, there's a shortage of staff, he explained. The reason is that more and more pharmacy graduates choose not to work in a pharmacy. Every newly qualified pharmacist effectively opens the door to a new pharmacy, which makes the staff shortage worse.
Krumov also gave figures on the number of pharmacies: as of 1 September 2026, Bulgaria has 3,300 pharmacies, up from 3,233 in 2025. He said 79% of them have a contract with the health insurance fund. A change in how pharmacies get paid in remote and hard-to-reach areas, in towns with only one pharmacy, and for pharmacies open around the clock has led to new pharmacies opening, improving access for more than 60,000 people. But Krumov noted this doesn't necessarily mean better treatment — getting drugs to where they're needed remains hard, and deliveries don't always arrive on time.