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Sale of Medicines in Supermarkets
4 de May de 2026On March 20, 2026, Law No. 15,357 was published, amending Law No. 5,991/1973 and regulating the sale of medicines in pharmacies or drugstores installed within supermarkets.
Under the new legal provisions, it is allowed to set up a pharmacy or drugstore in supermarkets, provided that it operates in a physically demarcated, segregated, and exclusive area dedicated to pharmaceutical activities. The law expressly requires physical space or functional segregation of the pharmacy area, prohibiting the sale of medicines in open areas or in spaces that are connected to other areas of the supermarket.
The drugstore or pharmacy may be owned by the supermarket itself or may be an independent third party, duly licensed, operating within the supermarket under a contractual arrangement. In both cases, all operational requirements applicable to pharmacies must be met, pursuant to Law No. 13,021/2014, which governs the pharmaceutical activities. Accordingly, a pharmacist must be present throughout the pharmacy’s entire operating hours, as provided in Article 6 of Law No. 13,021/2014.
Likewise, the law further provides that controlled medicines (those requiring notification or retention of a prescription) may only be dispensed after payment, or alternatively, that such medicines be transported from the pharmacy service counter to the payment area in sealed, tamper-proof, and clearly identifiable packaging (paragraph four of the new Article 6 of Law No. 5,991/1973).
Finally, the new law authorizes pharmacies to hire digital channels or e-commerce platforms for logistics and transportation purposes related to the delivery of medicines sold to patients, as established by the applicable regulations.
We remain at disposal to those interested in providing further details on the requirements of the new legislation governing the sale of medicines in supermarkets.
