This paper describes recent logistics developments observed in retail operations of pharmaceutical products in Brazil. Most pharmacies restructured themselves in chains. They improved their physical appearance. Some operate full-time. They rely upon advanced software and use refined formulas, based upon the best theory, to manage inventories. The central storage areas are well administered; a couple of them are automated; deliveries to stores are made daily; bar coding helps controlling product flow. A score of problems still hampers the obtainment of an authentic just in time result and a real zero-shortage situation: data bases lack capacity to register all the necessary information concerning 5,000 different items in 100 outlets; barriers persist between sales and purchasing departments; deliveries by suppliers to the central store are not as frequent and quick as desirable, so are deliveries to retail stores; harmful to efficiency is the presence of quite a number of low turnover, slow moving medicaments. Recommendations are offered in order to foster the still remote implementation of the dreamed Supply Chain Management.
logistics; distribution of pharmaceutical products; Brazilian drug retailing; drugstore chains; Supply Chain Management