Abstract

Chile is a 17,620,000 inhabitant’s country located in the WHO Americas Region. Life expectancy at birth is 79.1 years and total expenditure on health is 7.2% of GDP. In 2010, the country became the OECD’s 31st member and is the first in South America to join this organization. The Sanitary Code governs mostly all matters associated to the promotion, protection and recovery of health of the population. Since February 24, 2014 a new Drug Law came into force and defines the pharmacy as a Health Center and medicines as essential goods for health and not as a commodity. The new National Drug Law has three pillars: a) access; b) product quality; and c) price. Core pharmacy practice areas are manufacturing, community/private, hospital, medicine promotion/drug companies). In a decreasing fashion, the areas of pharmacy practice in Chile are: community/private pharmacy, healthcare, pharmaceutical industry, cosmetic industry and regulatory affairs and others, including universities.