What countries have a third-class or pharmacy-only system?
Most developed countries around the world have inherited a pharmacy-only category of medicines and have either significantly or fully limited nonprescription medicines sold outside pharmacies in general retail outlets. These systems arose from historic, centuries-old practice. In Europe, for example, the norm had long been for all medicines to be sold only from pharmacies. These older, European systems predated the modern trend of consumers taking a more active and informed role in their own healthcare decisions.
