World's busiest pharmacy? Vatican drugstore offers cut-rate prices

Published: 2008-05-23

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- From a simple storeroom for the pope's pills to a bustling drugstore open to the public, the Vatican pharmacy has come a long way in 134 years. The Vatican says the pharmacy is the busiest in the world; some 2,000 customers stream through its doors daily. The booming business and crowded store led officials to recently expand and open a whole new wing dedicated to top-brand beauty-care products and sparkly glass bottles of perfume. If it weren't for the large antique, hand-painted ceramic "arborelli," or medicinal urns, topping the cabinets and the portraits of Pope Benedict XVI and St. John of God, founder of the order that oversees the pharmacy, one would think this was just any old high-end drug and beauty store. But many people -- about 45 percent of the daily clientele -- come to the Vatican pharmacy for foreign, hard-to-find medicines or to fill prescriptions at cut-rate prices. Savings can range from 12 percent to 25 percent less for the same products sold in Italian drugstores.

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