Attractive locations in the center of Belgrade are the reason for the collapse of Apoteka Beograd, according to the trade union of this company
Facilities in Prince Mihailova, Resavska, in Kralja Petra or Kralja Milan are just some of the attractive locations where the company's pharmacies are located Pharmacy Belgrade, whose situation is worsening day by day.
While the pharmacies are closing, the number of employees has been cut in half, and the salary debt has reached ten and a half salaries, the claims of the workers' union that the demolition of the mentioned locations is behind the collapse of the company are particularly worrying. Thus, the president of the trade union "Opstanak" Jelena Šikuljak claims for Biznis.rs that Apoteka Beograd owns much more real estate than is stated in the documentation.
"In that deed of concession, it is stated, among other things, that the property of Apoteka Beograd as of November 25, 2025 is only about 4,5 million dinars, excluding movable property and immovable property, which is not true," Šikuljak said. "We have contracts and evidence that we bought and paid for certain objects and that we have the right to be registered as owners."
She added that this document reduces the value of the company. According to the union, seven buildings and one unfinished office building were purchased with the institution's funds.
"On paper today, none of them are ours. In the history of the cadastre, there is no information about our ownership - it's as if someone deleted it," claims Šikuljak.
As she explained, the Belgrade Pharmacy Institution built and bought premises for its work. Some were built in the eighties, and some in the nineties of the last century. The founding rights over Apoteka Beograd were transferred from the Republic of Serbia to the City of Belgrade in 2006.
"Purchasing premises was mostly done through the company Medifarm. For some objects, a request was sent to be entered in the real estate cadastre as the owner, however, when we requested the history of data about them through a lawyer, there is allegedly no data on ownership, except that they are city or state owned. Now we are in the process of seeking a purchase contract, in order to return our premises," said Šikuljak.
The union hired lawyers and for now, papers have been collected that confirm that certain properties are owned by Apoteka Beograd, namely the "Mostar" pharmacy in Resavska and the Žarkovo and Lipov lad laboratories. Bars for which they still do not have papers are 'Matej Ivanović' in Knez Mihailova, 'Mladen Stojanović' in Kralja Petra, 'Prvi May' in Kralja Milana and '20. oktobar' in Surčin, while the location in Braće Puhalović was left by the owner's will.
She also stated that as early as 2015, Apoteka Beograd asked the then mayor of Belgrade, Siniša Malog, for permission to finish the office building in Ljermontova with its own money or with the help of the City, but they did not receive an answer, so it stopped there.
"It is the Kosum building, which is unfinished and was originally planned to be used by galenic laboratories and our administration services. We had permission to register as owners, but everything - we don't know how - was magically transferred to the City. We know that the building is ours, but there is no such thing in the cadastre history," said Šikuljak.
She pointed out that the constitutionality of the decision of the City of Belgrade to establish Apoteka Beograd, which took over the employees and all the property of the state pharmacy institution without compensation, is called into question, because the founding act does not state the consent of the Republic.
"This act does not specify the conditions and obligations of the founders, i.e. the employees, but that decision is a fact, and based on it, everything is transferred to the City. We will send all of this to the relevant courts for evaluation," announced Šikuljak.
Because of all this, the president of the union thinks that business problems are not the real reasons for the collapse of this institution and that the ultimate goal is to take over bars in attractive locations.
"I believe that some areas will be repurposed, so instead of pharmacies we will get coffee shops or bakeries. It makes no sense to shut down the institution because of the 400 million dinars blockade and if there is a possibility of rescheduling the debt," said Šikuljak.
Apoteka Belgrade now has between 350 and 370 employees, while before the beginning of the crisis there were about 800. Workers are owed ten and a half salaries, 62 facilities have been closed, while 45 pharmacies are actively working, and not in all municipalities.
If Apoteka Beograd really be left to private individuals in accordance with the Law on Public-Private Partnerships and Concessions, it will have significant economic and social effects on citizens.
The most dangerous thing is that Apoteka Beograd, in the hands of private individuals, will start chasing profits and stop doing its basic activity characteristic of state pharmacies - taking care of public health.
It should not be forgotten that state pharmacies are, as a rule, the only pharmacies in Serbia that make so-called magisterial medicines, that is, medicines that pharmacists make according to personalized prescriptions for an individual and that these medicines are practically unique and cannot be bought as such in private pharmacies, because substitutes for such medicines are not produced in the pharmaceutical industry.
The production of drugs and preparations in the laboratories of Apoteka Belgrade is on the decline due to the lack of raw materials, packaging, and above all experts, employees warn. Apart from the medicine for epilepsy, the production of which is seriously threatened, in this pharmacy, citizens were supplied with rare therapies, which until recently were produced by the laboratories of this pharmacy, with a prescription or three times cheaper than in private institutions.
Source: Biznis.rs/Vreme
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