Some people will be surprised to hear a pharmacy organization talking about productivity, competitiveness, dimensions, and business viability. But it is precisely now when we must do so with more clarity than ever. We live in times of upheaval and uncertainty in supply chains and, not least, at the start of the conflict in the Middle East, the European Medicines Agency warned that persistent logistical difficulties could cause shortages of ingredients, medicines, or healthcare products.Community pharmacy is part of one of the densest and most accessible proximity pharmaceutical health models in Europe. In Catalonia and Spain, the vast majority of the population (98.8%) has a pharmacy within a few minutes of their home. This capillarity is no coincidence: it is the result of a model that combines an assistance vocation, territorial roots, and sustained business effort over decades. Behind each pharmacy office is – in addition to a health establishment – a micro-enterprise, a self-employed person, a human team, and a structure that generates employment, assumes on-call duties, maintains proximity services, and guarantees health accessibility every day of the year.

2012-2013. Citizens picked up their medications at pharmacies, but many did so with the anguish of thinking what would happen if we stopped being able to buy them. Now we know that all of this could have been avoided.