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Andrei-Șerban Stoian — the author behind the site.
A site carrying information about medicines should say plainly who writes it. I do. I am a software engineer, the founder of HartaFarmacii, and I have no medical training. This page explains what that means for what you read here.
Who I am
My name is Andrei-Șerban Stoian. I am a software engineer based in Romania and I work on HartaFarmacii alone: the Flask backend, the scrapers that collect public data, the mobile apps (iOS and Android), and the editorial text on the site. There is no agency, no outsourced newsroom, no freelancers.
The project started from a mundane frustration: in Romania, finding out whether a pharmacy is open on a Sunday at 9 p.m., or what the same medicine costs across four chains, meant opening ten websites. The information was public but scattered. HartaFarmacii puts it in one place.
What I am not
I am not a doctor. I am not a pharmacist. I have no formal medical training. I hold no qualification that would entitle me to tell you what to take, at what dose or for how long — and I do not do that anywhere on the site.
In practice, that means:
- I reproduce information from the official source (approved patient leaflet, SmPC, the CANAMED catalogue) instead of formulating my own recommendations.
- I do not write prescriptively about personalised dosing, complex interactions, pregnancy or paediatric treatment — for those I point to a pharmacist or a doctor.
- Every page with medical content carries a visible disclaimer and a pointer to 112 for emergencies.
The same is stated openly on the editorial policy page, including why there is no consulting pharmacist on the team yet and what we do in the absence of one.
What I have built
- The pharmacy map — 8,296 pharmacies in Romania, with address, opening hours and chain, on a single map.
- The price comparator — the same medicine, prices from several chains, each linking back to its source.
- The medicine price barometer — a public study with downloadable data (in Romanian) on how much the price of the same product varies between pharmacies.
- Patient guides — how the Romanian health system works (prescriptions, reimbursement, patient rights) and pharmacology guides.
- The mobile app — the same data, offline-friendly, on iOS and Android.
How I document
I have no medical opinions to offer, so everything I write has to come from somewhere. The sources I use, in order of trust:
- ANM / ANMDMR — Romania's medicines nomenclature, approved patient leaflets, summaries of product characteristics, safety communications.
- CNAS / CANAMED — the authorised maximum retail price and reimbursement status.
- Ministry of Health — public registries of healthcare facilities and vaccination points.
- EMA — public scientific assessments for centrally authorised medicines.
- OpenStreetMap (ODbL licence) and the chains' public websites — locations, opening hours, prices.
I do not source from forums, Facebook groups or untraceable secondary articles. The full process — how often data is refreshed, which automated checks run, what the limitations are — is described in the methodology.
Conflicts of interest
I take no money from pharmacy chains, drug manufacturers or distributors. There are no paid listings, no sponsored content and no affiliate links: pharmacies are ordered by distance, prices by their value. The site is funded by contextual advertising and by an optional one-off purchase in the mobile app — the full details are in the “How we are funded” section.
How to reach me
If you find an error — a stale price, a pharmacy that no longer exists, a statement that does not match the leaflet — write to me. I acknowledge within 24 hours and correct within 7 working days at most; if I decline a correction, I explain why.
Full contact details: contact page.
Read on: Editorial policy ·
Methodology ·
About.
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