Healthcare
Apotheek.nl
Apotheek.nl is an initiative of the KNMP, the Royal Dutch Pharmacists Association: the professional and trade body of Dutch pharmacists. The site addresses the general public and is organised into sections such as Medicines, Complaints and illnesses, Pharmacist care, a pharmacy finder and vaccination information. The medicine information is written by pharmacists and maintained by the KNMP Medicines Information Centre; every description shows the date it was last reviewed. The site is funded solely by the KNMP and carries no advertising.
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What this source does not give you
Apotheek.nl is public information, not a prescriber's source: the site itself states that the medicine information cannot replace a consultation or the package leaflet but supplements it, and refers anyone in doubt about medicines, health or treatment to their own pharmacist, doctor or specialist. The KNMP accepts no liability for damage arising from use of the information. Dosing tables, contraindications and interaction assessments at the level a prescriber needs are not what you will find here.
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Apotheek.nl written for?
- For the general public: people who want to know what a medicine is, what it is used for and what to ask their pharmacist. The language level, the structure and the referrals are all built for that. This is a materially different register from a professional medicines source: reading a lay text as if it were a prescribing source means missing the clinical nuance that was deliberately left out of it. Professional medicines information is published separately by the Dutch National Health Care Institute.
- Does the information on Apotheek.nl replace the package leaflet?
- No. The site's disclaimer is explicit: the medicine information cannot replace a consultation or the package leaflet but supplements it. The leaflet is part of the medicine's registered product information; the text on Apotheek.nl explains it in plain language. Where the two diverge, the registered product information prevails.
- Who keeps the medicine information up to date?
- The KNMP Medicines Information Centre. For each medicine description the site records when it was last reviewed. That date is usable: it tells you whether you are looking at a recently checked text or one that has not been touched for a while, and it belongs in any citation.
- Is there a commercial interest behind the site?
- The site is funded solely by the KNMP and carries no advertising. That does not make the source infallible, but it rules out one common distortion in public medicines information: the site earns nothing from the products it writes about. The content is copyrighted and may not be copied, adapted or translated without written permission.