Abstract

The sale online of pharmaceuticals is a recent issue in Italy and still under evaluation by the government because of its sensitive implications for the health as well as the unavoidable consequences it might have in the pharmaceutical market. It will, first, be presented an excursus on the change sustained by the pharmacy over the last years, generated by legislative developments which obliged the pharmacy itself to reconsider its role. The brief normative overview has the objective to describe the Italian-specific pharmaceutical context; from the Bersani Decree, to Law Monti, ending with the recent European Directive 2011/62 UE, which regulates the online sale of the OTC Pharmaceuticals. After that, It will be described in detail the innovation concerning the pharmaceuticals distribution that will be triggered by the above European directive i.e. all the aspects about Internet Pharmacies. In conclusion, an overview on the social commerce, its forecasts and implications for the healthcare retailing sector, will be presented, as well as the proposition of the smart social commerce as combination between social commerce and smart, the leading concepts of the current digital reality.