«Aloe» will open a halal pharmacy in St. Petersburg

The Aloe pharmacy chain will open the first halal pharmacy in St. Petersburg on December 14, the company said in a statement. Halal medicines do not contain alcohol, pork, or components from animals "slaughtered not according to Islamic canons," said Foat Khazrat, Head of the Expert Committee for the "Halal" standard of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The pharmacy in St. Petersburg will open at the address: 7/4 Malaya Posadskaya Street. The pharmacy with a range including halal medicines is the first for the BSS holding (which includes the Aloe chain) and the only one in St. Petersburg, according to the company's press release.

Using internet search engines, a Vademecum correspondent was unable to find other halal pharmacies in the Northern Capital.

According to Khazrat, to open a halal pharmacy, it is necessary to obtain a certificate. Such certificates are issued by special committees for the "Halal" standard, of which there are about a dozen in Russia, he added.

In November of this year, Aloe changed its general director. Natalia Samarina, who headed the pharmacy chain since January 2016, moved to the Mega Farm chain, managed by Andrey Gusev. She was replaced by Gleb Danilov, Director for Business Development and Coordination of the BSS company.

According to the results of the first half of 2016, the Aloe network ranked 44th in the "Vademecum TOP200 Pharmacy Chains" rating with a revenue of 1.2 billion rubles. To date, the network has more than 230 pharmacies in 48 Russian cities.