OBJECTIVES: Post marketing observational surveys allow investigation of drug utilization in real life settings. However, studies conducted with the help of physicians face difficulties in assessing the perception of risks and benefits by patients, as well as in measuring their adherence. Our objective was to assess positive and negative outcomes of treatment, to measure adherence and to test the concept of treatment acceptability in a network of pharmacies specifically developed to conduct pharmacoepidemiology studies. METHODS: PHARMA®  is a network of 2,090 community-pharmacies representative of the overall 22,610 French pharmacies with respect to geographic location. Pharmacies belonging to the network had to include 5 to 10 patients. For each dispensing of statin, pharmacists completed a dispensing form and patients completed a self-report questionnaire describing their adherence, their perception towards the treatment and its side-effects and how acceptable they considered taking their statin treatment. RESULTS: Among the 443 patients analysed, 66 % of them considered themselves as adherent to their lipid-lowering therapy, and nearly 60% reported at least one adverse event mainly muscular pain or cramps and gastro-intestinal disorders. About 90% of patients declared never having stopped their treatment because they considered it more harmful than beneficial. Sixty-six percent of adherent patients and 42% of non adherent patients agree their treatment give them more advantages than inconveniences. About 70% of adherent and 49% of non adherent patients considered their treatment as “very acceptable”. Our sample was representative of patients taking statins. CONCLUSIONS: The pilot survey highlighted a good participation of pharmacists, along with a good quality of the patient data recorded in pharmacies. Performing pharmacy-based pharmaco-epidemiological studies is powerful, effective, and reliable with In fine PHARMA®. Our study confirmed the potential contribution of the concept of treatment acceptability to the explanation of patients’ adherence toward long-term treatment.