The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) has published an opinion paper calling for countries to take full advantage of community pharmacy’s capabilities, including recommendations to expand services and incentivise generics uptake.

‘The Community Pharmacy Contribution to Sustainable Health Systems’ highlights community pharmacy’s role in ensuring access to healthcare and preventing unnecessary hospital visits across Europe.

It recommends that member states undertake the following actions at national level:

• Expand community pharmacy services as an integral part of primary care
• Better integrate community pharmacies in the primary care network and recognise community pharmacists as primary healthcare service providers
• Improve access to innovative and/or specialty (biosimilars and biological) medicines by increasing the supply of these medicines via community pharmacies
• Incentivise generics uptake by community pharmacy
• Involve pharmacy in national action plans to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), improve vaccination coverage and risk minimisation plans for other medicinal therapies.