• Piotr Merks, Marta Jakubowska, Ewelina Drelich, Damian Świeczkowski, Joanna Bogusz, Krzysztof Bilmin, Katarina Fehir Sola, Andreas May, Anita Majchrowska, Mark Koziol, Jakub Pawlikowski, Miłosz Jaguszewski, and Regis Vaillancourt.
• Faculty of Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Wóycickiego 1/3, 01-938, Warsaw, Poland; Trade Union of Pharmacy Workers, Meriana C. Coopera 6B/10, 01-315, Warsaw, Poland; Polish Pharmaceutical Group, Zbąszyńska 3, 91-342, Łódź, Poland; Employed Pharmacist in Europe (EPhEU) C/o Verband Angestellter Apotheker Österreichs (VAAÖ) Berufliche Interessenvertretung, Spitalgasse 31/4, 1090, Vienna, Austria; Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, CollegiumMedicum in Bydgoszcz, A. Jurasza 2, 85-089 Bydgoszcz, Poland. Electronic address: p.merks@uksw.edu.pl.
• Res Social Adm Pharm. 2021 Jan 1; 17 (1): 1807-1812.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 epidemic has affected every area of life. The greatest challenge has been to adapt the functioning of the health service to prevent the spread of the epidemic and to help infected patients. This has required the involvement of not only doctors and nurses, but also pharmacists. In the face of this pandemic, governments in many countries have granted pharmacists greater authority.ObjectivesThe purpose of this paper is to review the legal extension of the role of pharmacists in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The review considers recent changes in European countries, Canada, and the United States.MethodsA literature review was performed to summarise knowledge about the extension of the role of pharmacists during the pandemic period. Key articles were retrieved mainly from PubMed and Google Scholar, using the terms "COVID-19", "2019-nCoV", "coronavirus", and "pandemic" in combination with "pharmacist" as keywords for our search. We included scientific publications from February 1, 2019 to May 15, 2020.ResultsPharmacists have been given numerous opportunities so that they can actively join in the fight against the virus. Some of the novel legal extensions aimed at aiding overloaded healthcare systems are as follows: authorisation to prepare hand and surface disinfectants, eligibility to renew chronic treatment prescriptions, as well as filling pro auctore and pro familia prescriptions by pharmacists, performing COVID-19, influenza, and Group A Streptococcus screening tests, and vaccine administration. Moreover, many countries have facilitated Internet services, such as virtual medical consultations, e-prescriptions, and home drug delivery - to promote social distancing among patients. To mitigate drug shortages, the following strategies have been implemented: alternative sourcing, strength, generic, or therapeutic substitution, and preparing compounded formulations at the pharmacy.ConclusionsNovel legal extensions have allowed exploitation of the full potential ofpharmacists worldwide, aiding the limited resources of overloaded healthcare systems.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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