Fewer and fewer young people are choosing Pharmacy: fewer candidates than places available in Iași and București

The number of pharmacies in Romania has grown by 500 units over the past ten years, reaching 8,400 at present, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Despite this growth, fewer and fewer young people are choosing to study Pharmacy, as shown by the 2026 admissions figures at two of the country's most important universities of medicine and pharmacy.

At the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, 114 places were offered for Pharmacy, yet only 107 candidates applied. A similar situation was recorded at UMF Iași, where only 23 people applied for 30 state-funded places. In practice, at both universities, the number of applicants fell below the number of available places.

Why school leavers are avoiding the pharmacy profession

Among the reasons driving secondary school graduates away from this specialisation are the relatively modest salaries – averaging 3,000–3,500 RON net – and the significant responsibility the profession entails. Adding to this is the emergence of several new faculties of medicine and pharmacy, which have spread applicants across a greater number of university centres.

Pharmacist Ilie Echim, founder of Farmaciile Ardealul in Piatra Neamț, which operates 11 outlets in the city, told Ziarul Financiar: "I am concerned, and over the past two or three years I have taken on every pharmacist who has come along, with the thought that in three to five years it will be a major problem to find pharmacists. The profession has been brought into disrepute by all manner of advertising. Salaries in the private sector are lower than in the public sector. An assistant at a hospital pharmacy earns nearly double what they would earn in the private sector. If I were to pay public-sector wages, I would have to bring money from home."

As an illustration of the gap between the public and private sectors, at the County Hospital in Timișoara a pharmacist's salary is 9,000 RON gross, equivalent to approximately 5,200 RON net, to which supplements of up to 500–1,000 RON net may be added.