In Moldova, pharmacies must collect expired medicines from citizens

In Moldova, by the end of 2025, all pharmacies will be required by law to collect expired medicines from citizens. This was announced today, November 26, by the director of the Medicines Agency, Dragos Gutu.

He clarified that notifications in this regard will be published on the information panel of each institution. The resolution on pharmaceutical waste management, which establishes this, has been submitted to public consultation, which will continue until December 6.

Citizens’ medical waste is supposed to be collected by a pharmacist and placed in special containers, access to which will be limited for outsiders. In the future, expired medicines must be handed over to distributors for transport to an economic agent who will be responsible for their disposal.

“The medicine distributor, with whom the pharmacy has an agreement, supplies medicines and in exchange is obliged to periodically collect pharmaceutical waste.” — Gutsu said, highlighting that this service will be free for the population.

Thanks to the implementation of this project, the Moldovan authorities plan to collect up to 90% of medical waste. Currently, pharmacies are not required to do so, but some pharmacy chains charge them on their own initiative. There is currently a pilot project with two commercial pharmacy chains that collect medical waste from the population and destroy it harmlessly.

According to the head of the Medicines Agency, the authorities are working on the development of regulations that will allow obsolete medicines to be destroyed by incineration. This method, more ecological and faster, is already practiced in European countries.

“There will be a single fee throughout the management system, which will be paid by the importer of medicines (in the amount of 0.3% of the shipping cost). “Going forward, the tax will cover the harmless destruction of all pharmaceutical waste collected from the public.” – Dragos Gutu concluded.

The lack of collection points for medical waste is a serious problem in the Republic of Moldova. People throw drugs directly into garbage containers. Experts claim that citizens are not aware of the dangers and impact of medical waste on the environment and human health.