Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Pharmacies in Italy - Statistics & Facts
Since the ’90s, the number of pharmacies in Italy has been constantly growing, amounting to over 20,000 in 2023, among which the vast majority were private. In this period, Lombardy was the region with the highest number of private and public pharmacies in Italy. The number of parapharmacies, shops that sell pharmaceutical products for which a medical prescription is not required, has been also growing, reaching 4,400 in 2023. Average prices of pharmaceutical drugs were significantly higher for health supplements, herbal and homeopathic products. Among health supplements, vitamins and minerals was the best performing category in terms of sales volume.
Cosmetics in pharmacies
The production of cosmetic products represents a business worth more than ten billion euros a year in Italy and around 16.7 percent of those products were sold by pharmacies in Italy in 2023. In this period, the market value of cosmetics sold by pharmacies amounted to almost 2,1 billion euros. When it comes to cosmetics and personal care products sold by pharmacies, the highest sales value in 2023 was represented by face care products. As of 2022, the leading manufacturer of beauty products for pharmacies in Italy by revenue was the Istituto Ganassini, followed by ICIM International and Labo international.Online pharmacies
The online pharmacy market worldwide has been growing, and in 2023 revenue totaled approximately 71.5 billion U.S. dollars. As of 2023, Farmacia Loreto was the most popular online pharmacy in Italy, with almost one million monthly visitors. As of 2024, about 18 percent of the over-the-counter pharmaceuticals were bought online. This figure is forecasted to reach 30 percent in 2029. The main reason to shop through online pharmacies for Italian consumers were the lower prices.
