Pharmaceutical Administration

PHARMACEUTICAL ADMINISTRATION, an organ of the health department operating on the principles of commercial accounting and having the task of organizing and providing pharmaceutical assistance and medical supply to the population and medical-sanitary institutions of the health department. The Pharmaceutical Administration includes all non-hospital pharmacies, hygiene and sanitary goods stores, pharmaceutical warehouses, and laboratories. Some Pharmaceutical Administrations have their own pharmaceutical factories and workshops for the repair and production of instruments. Pharmaceutical Administrations arose with the introduction of the New Economic Policy. To alleviate the drug shortage and improve medical supply, the People's Commissariat of Health issued a circular (dated July 1, 1922, No. 171) on transferring nationalized former private pharmacies to commercial accounting. As working capital, the Pharmaceutical Administrations were allocated the medicinal stocks that existed in the health departments at that time. Pharmaceutical Administrations operate on the basis of the decree of December 28, 1927. The Statutes of the Pharmaceutical Administrations are approved by the corresponding provincial, oblast, krai, okrug executive committees and councils of people's commissars of autonomous republics. According to the statute, the Pharmaceutical Administration is obliged to supply medical-sanitary institutions of the corresponding health department and to dispense medicine at a special rate, at cost, at the expense of the health department. Operating on commercial accounting, the Pharmaceutical Administration is completely independent in its operational activities, but the directing and controlling role belongs to the health department. By a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (dated September 1, 1925), Pharmaceutical Administrations are exempt from taxes; moreover, in relation to the payment of premises for pharmacies and communal services, Pharmaceutical Administrations are equated with medical-sanitary institutions. By a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR (dated September 11, 1925), the net profit of the Pharmaceutical Administration is left at the disposal of the health departments for the improvement of pharmaceutical assistance and the expansion of the pharmacy network in rural areas. The most advantageous and expedient organizational form is the union on a provincial, krai, and gubernia scale. Smaller unions (okrug, uyezd), bearing larger overhead expenses, lead to the increase in the cost of goods and to the dispersion of pharmaceutical assistance and medical supply. Pharmaceutical Administrations serve the population more and more widely every year; the pharmacy network organized on the principles of commercial accounting has significantly expanded during the period of activity of the Pharmaceutical Administrations. Thus, according to 41 unions, the number of pharmacies in cities at the time of organization of the Pharmaceutical Administration was 200; on October 1, 1925, 646; on October 1, 1926, 895. In rural areas, at the time of organization, there were 14, on October 1, 1925, 343, on October 1, 1926, 678 pharmacies. With the increase in the number of pharmacies in rural areas and in connection with the targeted use of net profit (see above), pharmaceutical assistance to the peasantry has also improved. M. Khaymovich.