Methodology — how we collect and verify the data.

1. Data sources

1.1 Pharmacy locations

The primary source for locations is OpenStreetMap (OSM), queried through the Overpass API with a filter on amenity=pharmacy within Romania's administrative boundaries. OSM data is distributed under the ODbL licence, which allows redistribution and use with attribution — attribution we state explicitly in the footer of every page and in the public GeoJSON endpoint.

OSM data is supplemented with the public store-locators of the main chains (Catena, Dr. Max, Help Net, Dona, Farmacia Tei, Mattca, Spring Farma) — these are a secondary source for opening hours, phone numbers and chain identification. We use them to enrich, not to replace, the OSM coordinates.

1.2 Product prices

Prices come from public online-pharmacy websites. The preferred mechanism is parsing JSON-LD schema.org/Product blocks — a structured format that most retailers publish to ease indexing in Google Shopping. Where JSON-LD is unavailable, we use site-specific HTML parsers (specific CSS selectors).

Chains we currently extract prices from: Catena, Dr. Max (with the Richter sub-brand), Farmacia Tei, Help Net, Dona (when its crawler isn't blocked), Mattca, Spring Farma, plus independent online pharmacies (Minifarm, Farmacia Dav, Farmacia Ardealul) — effective coverage varies over time, depending on the availability of the public feeds.

1.3 Rx references (CANAMED)

For prescription drugs (Rx) we use the CANAMED list as a reference — the maximum retail price approved by the Ministry of Health, published monthly on the ministry's website. CANAMED is not a sale price — it is the cap above which a pharmacy cannot sell. We display it strictly as a benchmark. The list is imported monthly (systemd timer on the VPS).

2. Refresh cadence

• Locations — pulled from OSM daily, but only when changes are detected via diff. Locations are very stable (pharmacies don't move daily).
• Opening hours — updated manually on report or when the chain publishes an update on its store-locator. For 24/7 pharmacies we have a dedicated page that clearly marks when we cannot confirm 24/7 status.
• Prices — vary per chain: some scrapers run daily (those with easy JSON-LD that don't aggressively block), others weekly (Catena/Tei on listing pages). The last-update timestamp is stored per offer in the database and exposed on the product page.
• CANAMED — monthly import.

3. Data quality

3.1 Product ↔ price matching

The hardest part of a pharmaceutical price comparator is matching: deciding with confidence that „Nurofen 200mg pack of 24" on one site is the same product as „NUROFEN 200 MG 24 FILM-COATED TABLETS" on another site. We use three signals in order of trust:

1. GTIN / EAN-13 code — when present in JSON-LD, this is a deterministic match.
2. INN (International Non-proprietary Name) + strength + pharmaceutical form + pack size — used as secondary match.
3. Normalised brand name + pack size — fallback when the first two are missing.

When two sources disagree on pack size (e.g. one says „24 tabs", the other „24 capsules"), we raise a collision flag: offers stay separate until manual review. We prefer a false negative (two duplicate entries) over a false positive (wrong price displayed under the wrong product).

3.2 Automatic checks

• Price within a reasonable range (RON 0.10 – 5,000) — out-of-range prices are flagged and not displayed.
• Detection of identical prices across multiple sources → usually indicates an upstream error which we flag.
• Heuristics that detect when a site has changed structure (sudden 0% match rates) → alert.

4. Limitations declared openly

The displayed price may differ from the price in the physical pharmacy. The prices we scrape come from chains' online stores — which aren't always in sync with the on-shelf price in a physical store. For purchases, verify directly at the pharmacy.

• Coverage is not 100%. Some chains (currently Dona, Ardealul) block crawlers or require Cloudflare challenges, which reduces coverage. We mark visibly when we have no data for a chain on a given product.
• Reimbursed Rx prices — we don't show them. The actual price a patient pays for a reimbursed drug depends on prescription status (50% reimbursement, 90%, free for some conditions), the prescribed INN, and the dispensing pharmacy. These prices are not fixed public prices — showing one figure would be misleading. CANAMED is the only absolute public benchmark, and that's what we display.
• Incomplete data for small pharmacies. For independent pharmacies not listed in OSM and without a website with a store-locator, data may be missing.
• Latency to appearance. A new pharmacy appears in our index after it enters OSM — usually a few weeks. We can speed this up on report.

5. Logo policy

We use chain logos under descriptive fair use — for brand identification in comparison lists and on chain pages. We do not imply endorsement, partnership, or authorisation. If a chain requests takedown at contact@hartafarmacii.ro, we remove the logo within 48h and replace it with a neutral text placeholder.

6. AI policy

HartaFarmacii uses AI only in assistive pipelines, not for publishing auto-generated content without review. Specifically:

• Editorial articles (patient guides, symptom and condition pages) are written by manual curation of cited public sources (ANMDMR, EMA, patient leaflets). They may be assisted by a language model for fluency, but every medical fact is verified in the primary source before publication.
• There is no mass-generated SEO „spun" content from LLMs published without review.
• Common Crawl / scraped pages are not republished on HartaFarmacii — we use data only to compute displayed prices.

7. Conflict of interest

Stated explicitly: zero conflict of interest. We are not affiliated, we don't receive sales commissions, and we don't have contracts with the listed chains. Revenue comes 100% from:

• contextual Google AdSense (web) and Google AdMob (iOS) ads, shown only after consent;
• iOS „Premium Lifetime" In-App Purchase at 4.99 RON, single payment, that disables ads.

No revenue source conditions price display order or which article appears on the site. If you suspect a conflict, write to us and we'll clarify.

8. How to report an error

Single channel: contact@hartafarmacii.ro →

• For urgent corrections (wrong price on an indexed page) — response in 24-48h.
• For non-urgent corrections (incorrect schedule, invalid phone, wrong chain) — corrected within 7 working days.
• For logo / pharmacy takedown — 48h.

Internal process: we receive the email → confirm in 24h → verify the source (usually back at the original public source) → apply the correction in the database → confirm the result by reply.

9. Versions and lifecycle

This methodology page was last reviewed on 2026-05-01 and is updated whenever we add a new source, change a refresh cadence, or discover a new limitation we want to declare. The full code repository is private but open to audit on request.

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