Pharmaceutical quality

A few weeks ago I was in a pharmacy, this time not to buy the regular medications that I buy every month, but for a nutritional supplement that I thought might help me improve my condition. I was in the regular pharmacy with slightly lower prices, how they achieve these prices against the background of the super high prices of medicines in other pharmacies, will probably remain a mystery to me. Because even the pharmacy next door in the same building has much higher prices, and yet these pharmacies with high prices have not gone bankrupt, on the contrary, they seem to be thriving and always have customers and they are always well supplied.
But anyway, the pharmacist showed me a package of supplements, told me the manufacturer and the price, the manufacturer was German, the price seemed high to me, maybe exactly because of that, and I again asked my regular question - don't you have something cheaper?

The woman said, don't worry, the price is actually not that high, because this is the price for the entire package, which is 100 pills, and we sell in blister packs too. But now I will show another option.
She took out another variation of the same medicine, this time, however, the manufacturer was Bulgarian, the package had different numbers of pills, but the price was actually, calculated for the same number of pills, the same.
I thought for a few seconds and said: give me the German ones.
Good choice, replied the pharmacist, the German is certainly of better quality.

It wasn't until I went outside that I realized what the woman had said to me. In fact, there were many things that surprised me about my visit to the pharmacy that day. First of all, the fact that the pharmacist decided to provide me with some assistance, and that there was any communication at all.
I have told you before that in Bulgaria it is not accepted for a pharmacist to provide any assistance with consulting to their clients. They even often refuse to answer questions with the words: contact your doctor. I do not know if this is some kind of tacit agreement between the pharmaceutical and medical mafia in the country, or if it is simply indifference to the client, the patient and the person in the first place.
But I suspect that in pharmacies, where the prices of medicines are a little lower than the usually high prices, there is something else - the pharmacists are very poorly paid, they are usually old, retired women who cannot make ends meet with their pharmacist's pension, so they have to work even at retirement age. Or they are young people, without experience, even those who probably do not have a pharmaceutical education.
This is illegal, but I've come across such pharmacy employees who don't know where they are and can't answer basic questions, not that they want to in principle, but they can't even find the medicine you're looking for because they haven't heard of it.

And there was something else here that day - a pharmacist expressed an opinion.
This pharmacist was an elderly woman of post-retirement age. So I relied on her many years of experience, and not only - on her experience with Bulgarian medicines for so many years. Because she said - the German ones are of better quality. And honestly, I had never thought about this issue. I had never thought about the quality of medicines, especially of the medicines produced here. Because this is something that, logically and morally, should be of high quality by default, right?

Of course, when I think about other things produced in Bulgaria, I don't see quality anywhere. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about Bulgarian production, about food products and agricultural crops, fruits and vegetables, which are missing or are in small numbers and variety in the large food chains. But I have to tell you that the ones that are available there are of very low quality, and when I see this, I wonder if it is even possible to produce anything good here. As I told you, even our traditional products have harmful substances, the composition does not meet quality standards, and the prices are high and too high, not only for this low quality, but in general.

But the drugs, God, the drugs!

Then I thought of something else. For several years I have been using a type of paracetamol, produced in Bulgaria in very convenient, small pills, because it turned out that I have a hard time taking pills, although in recent years I have had to take extremely large amounts of them.
I don't even remember when this paracetamol stopped working or simply never worked.

Some time ago I read comments from English expats living in Spain complaining that the prices of paracetamol there are very high, so I took the time to check these prices and found out that the price in England is lower, yes, but the price in Spain is the same as in Bulgaria or even lower. And the paracetamol in Bulgaria doesn't work, or at least not the one I buy. Because then I came across paracetamol produced in Turkey, and that's already a medicine, yes, it works.

I remember how many years ago a relative told me: I have found a very effective medicine for headaches. But you take two pills at a time and it works.
But my God, why two pills at a time?
This is a strong painkiller for migraines, inflammatory and degenerative diseases of the musculoskeletal system, postoperative conditions, diseases of the peripheral nervous system... The same symptoms that ibuprofen is used for, but imagine taking two ibuprofen pills. Even one is too much.
Well, at least the kids who follow dangerous TikTok trends and recently participated in a paracetamol-taking competition will win the competitions and not die. 😂

And we can only think about what the quality of our healthcare is like, along with the quality of our pharmaceutical products. I can only say one thing - it's not high for sure. When recently, for political reasons, Macedonian patients were transported to Bulgaria for treatment after the big fire in that disco, my first thought was: why are they bringing them here, when we don't have good doctors. But it turns out that we have them. But they are only activated on such occasions - when politics is involved, and when foreign patients are treated. The attitude of doctors towards local patients is often terrible. If they even pick up the phone. And you know who, for me, is a good doctor now - the one who picks up the phone and the one who behaves well. Regardless of the consequences of their treatment.
But that's another topic for a different conversation. That's enough for today. 😁
Stay healthy!

Thank you for your time! Copyright:	@soulsdetour
	Soul's Detour is a project started by me years ago when I had a blog about historical and not so popular tourist destinations in Eastern Belgium, West Germany and Luxembourg. Nowadays, this blog no longer exists, but I'm still here - passionate about architecture, art and mysteries and eager to share my discoveries and point of view with you.

Personally, I am a sensitive soul with a strong sense of justice.
Traveling and photography are my greatest passions.
Sounds trivial to you?
No, it's not trivial. Because I still love to travel to not so famous destinations.🗺️
Of course, the current situation does not allow me to do this, but I still find a way to satisfy my hunger for knowledge, new places, beauty and art.
Sometimes you can find the most amazing things even in the backyard of your house.😊🧐🧭|