How should medicinal products be disposed of?

The safest way to dispose of old medicinal products and medicinal products that are no longer needed is to return them to a pharmacy for destruction.

Pharmacies are required to accept medicinal products from patients free of charge and arrange for their destruction, provided that the medicinal products were dispensed by a pharmacy.

Syringes and needles must be returned in closed containers to prevent staff from being injured by sharp objects. Special sharps containers are available from pharmacies.

Why are returned medicinal products not refunded?

Pharmacies must be able to guarantee that the medicinal products dispensed to patients have been handled and stored correctly so that their quality is assured. This cannot be guaranteed once the medicinal product has left the pharmacy with the customer, i.e. once it is outside the pharmacy’s area of responsibility.

For this reason, a pharmacy is not permitted to sell returned medicinal products to another person, even if the packages are unopened and the expiry date has not passed.