site.btaVending Machines Can't Make Medicines More Accessible, Health Barometer Founder Says

Vending machines cannot make medicines more accessible, Sofia University Law Faculty Dean Daniel Valchev told a discussion of the Health Barometer series on Wednesday, which looked at the accessibility of medicines in Bulgaria. A former deputy prime minister and former minister of education and science, Valchev is behind the Health Barometer as a civic initiative monitoring and analyzing the condition and the resilience of the Bulgarian healthcare system.

Valchev said a bill submitted to the National Assembly in December 2024 seeks to address the problems associated with the accessibility of medicines by providing for medicine-selling machines to be put up in municipal government buildings. He noted that, obviously, such machines would only sell non-prescription drugs, and it is unclear what role pharmacists would play in this and who would be in charge of equipment maintenance and product supply. It would be better to consider mobile pharmacies or online purchases, but this calls for a political will, Valchev argued.

Some settlements with over 1,000 inhabitants are as far as 40 km from the nearest pharmacy, he said. There is no round-the-clock pharmacy in 14 of Bulgaria's 27 regional capitals. The national pharmacy map, created years ago, has not been updated and provides no information about pharmacies which have been closed or newly opened.

In February, the Pharmaceutical Union called for reducing the list of medicines distributed via vending machines to minimize the possibility for anyone to buy products containing paracetamol and pseudoephedrine. Health Minister Silvi Kirilov told journalists in March that a working group is discussing the idea.