Development of methodical approaches to the assortment management of pharmacy networks by principles of categorycal management

The most responsible business is determining the correct strategic course of the pharmaceutical organization and the directions of increasing its competitiveness, as it forms the priorities of its activities in the relatively long-term perspective. Management of assortment is one of the most important functions of any pharmacy. The modern markets characterized as "the market of buyers" actively demands the introduction of pharmacy networks of modern tools and technology management of product assortment. The aim of the work is to develop methodological approaches to managing the assortment of pharmacy networks on the principles of categorical management. Methods. Systematic and logical analysis, methods of comparative, documentary, structural-functional and economic-statistical analysis were used in this work. Results of the research. The algorithm for managing the product assortment in pharmacy networks was developed for efficient management of the assortment of pharmacy networks, which is based on the principles of categorical management, and involves: definition of product categories, their internal structure and signs, upon which the medicines will be grouped (according to ATC classification (first level)); analysis of the main financial and economic indicators by the selected product categories; determining the role of each product category in accordance with its influence on the achievement of pharmacy network's goals; studying the demand for each product category and its internal content; assessment of the current state of commodity categories, its structure and determination of possible changes in the work with its assortment content in the future; optimization for each product category of the entire chain of movement of goods from the purchase and formation of inventory to direct sales; substantiation of assortment policy on selected criteria and evaluation its efficiency; implementation assortment policy. The proposed methodological approaches were worked out on the example of one of the investigated pharmacy networks. Conclusions. It was proved that categorical management is an instrument of management assortment policy of pharmacy networks, which allows to allocate groups of pharmaceutical products, which will be aimed at fulfilling certain goals of pharmacy networks, which respectively will promote implementation of the strategy of pharmacy networks developmen