Background
In 1874, Eusebio Ludvig Fronmen, a Fatebenefratelli monk (Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God), former director of the pharmacy of San Giovanni di Dio Hospital, located on the Tiber Island, founded the first Vatican Pharmacy at the request of the Secretary of State at the time, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli. It was a request for a stock of medicine for the Pope and the Cardinals.
The first Fatebenefratelli community established itself permanently inside Vatican City in 1892. In 1917, the Pharmacy was moved close to Porta Sant’Anna.
In 1929, after the Lateran Treaty, the Vatican Pharmacy was moved again, to a more suitable location in the Belvedere Palace, where it still is located today.
The Vatican Pharmacy currently provides an essential service not only to Vatican personnel and residents, but also to anyone in need of medicine, in particular foreign medicine that cannot be acquired in Italy.
The Pharmacy covers a surface area of 1,000 square meters, spread across various areas, including a large room for sales, underground warehouses and offices.
It handles 40,000 products (pharmaceutical products, para-pharmaceutical products, supplements, hygiene and skincare products) and serves about 2,000 people every day, more than half of whom, are from outside Vatican City State. Like in a large family, each day the team of pharmacists, religious Fatebenefratelli, warehouse workers, sales people and administrative staff, welcome and serve all visitors to the pharmacy.
As of July 2019, 145 years after its foundation, the Vatican Pharmacy was updated with an automated system for the storage and distribution of pharmaceutical products.