Pharmacy, Inc.

Pharmacy, Inc. is a Delongonian crown corporation responsible for pharmaceutical distribution in the PDRD. There are 13,210 pharmacies, including 3,230 stores which sell grocery goods and other items, fulfilled by dGROCER. Pharmacy has a monopoly on pharmaceutical distribution in Delongo, representing 84% of consumer pharmaceutical sales in the PDRD. There are a number of smaller private competitors.

Pharmacy, Inc. was founded in 1960 as a crown corporation to serve under-served communities in Delongo, such as in Justalign. It has since expanded to have a national mandate. Lately, it has been working closely with People's Post and RecDisp to develop a secure mail-delivery system.

Pharmacy, Inc. has several store types: "Pharmacy" which is their main brand, "Pharmaplus" which includes small grocery stores operated by dGROCER, and "Pha" which is their brand for dense commercial markets where smaller compact stores are required (mostly based in Blix, Ritz, and New London).

In smaller communities, Pharmaplus may be the only local grocer. Here they are mandated to offer more diverse and comprehensive grocery selections.

In large cities, Pha usually operates pharmacies where all drugs are stored in a central location, processed and delivered as needed to pharmacies. These stores require two pharmacists: one at the pharmacy and one at the processing location, but the pharmacist spend less time on each order as the on-location pharmacist only completes a check and fulfills common refills in-store. The Pha stores have been celebrated for making pharmacies more accessible in city-centres and other dense areas, but the Pharmacy main store is still required for orders requiring faster fulfilment. In Blix, all Pha stores can have orders ready in 6-hours after drop-off, but Pharmacy stores usually only require 10-30 minutes for common orders. Pha stores may carry very common prescriptions, but those used less commonly are not stored in-store.

Research and Development
Pharmacy, Inc. is not permitted to have a research and development wing by law. This is because drug development is not influenced by profitability (in Delongo—Delongonian companies can sell their drugs internationally and profit from being the first to sell their work, which is often highly advanced).

Delongonian Pharmaceutical Research companies have two main sources of funding for their research: 1) State funding, which provides the research aims, but comes with the caveat of much stricter research ethics guidelines which must be followed company-wide. 2) The company can sell their products internationally exclusively until generics are developed. Delongonian regulations mandate that international pricing must be "fair and reasonable."

Typically additional funding is provided to educational research.

Some companies do not take state funding and develop drugs solely based off of international profits. These are typically small subsidiaries of multinational corporations. There are also some small domestic companies selling drugs abroad and doing research here.

Pharmaceutical research in Delongo can be divided into two groups: replication of existing compounds (creating generics) and development. Delongo complies with the demands of international companies and does not sell their generics abroad for 5 years minimum, unless another generic is released before then.

Manufacturing
Pharmacy is responsible for making about 53% of the generics used in the PDRD, about 46% of the medications used overall in the country. It makes drugs in the following facilities:
 * Nimbus Calc
 * West Blix, Blix
 * Wrexham-on-New Trent, NR
 * Chiclayo, RB
 * Union, NA