Selling over-the-counter medicines

Do you sell or do you want to sell over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in the Netherlands? You must keep to the provisions of the Medicines Act and the Medicines Act Regulations.

What are over-the-counter (OTC) medicines?

Over-the-counter medicines can be obtained without a prescription (OTC) at the pharmacy, drugstore or supermarket. OTC medicines include painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, certain nose drops, cough syrups or diarrhoea inhibitors.

Which OTC medicines may you sell?

Which OTC medicine you may sell, depends on your type of business. There are:

• over-the-counter medicines that may only be sold at a pharmacy (Pharmacy only PH, Uitsluitend Apotheek UA)
• over-the-counter medicines that may be sold in pharmacies and chemists, or other shops employing a qualified chemist (Pharmacy and Drugstore only PDO, Uitsluitend Apotheek of Drogist UAD)
• over-the-counter medicines that may be sold freely and, therefore, also in 'standard' shops, webshops and supermarkets (General Sales GS, Algemene Verkoop AV)

You can check the category of an OTC medicine in the Medicines Information Bank. The abbreviation UA, UAD, or AV also appears on every package of an OTC medicine. This way, you can check if you are allowed to sell a particular OTC medicine.

Mandatory patient consultation

If you sell an over-the-counter medicine, you may have to provide your customer with information and advice. Whether this is required depends on in which category the OTC medicine sold falls.

Are you selling a PH medicine? Then you must provide counselling or supervision to your customer, even if they do not ask for it.

Do you sell a PDO medicine? Then you must inform your customer that you can give them additional information or advice if they want it. Only a qualified (assistant) chemist or pharmacist may give this advice.

Do you sell self-care medicines that can be freely sold (GS)? In that case, oral advice from a chemist or pharmacist is not necessary. Each consumer is responsible for using the medicine according to the instructions on the package leaflet.

Online sales of (OTC) medicines

Do you sell over-the-counter or other medicines online to the general public and is your business located in the Netherlands? You must register with Online providers of medicines (CIBG, in Dutch). If you meet the requirements (in Dutch), you will get the (mandatory) European logo. You must place the logo on the home page of your website. Your company will be listed on the official list of authorised suppliers of medicines (CIBG, in Dutch).