Growing competition forces enterprises to implement effective management technologies that make it possible to improve profitability through rapid response to consumer requests. The aim of the article is the research of content and role of category management in regulation of commodity and assortment policy, the reasoning of category management application for the development and management of retail range of pharmaceutical companies. Nowadays category management is presented as progressive concept of flow product categories control and optimization of the entire supply chain. In accordance with category management product categories are treated as independent business units. It is based on the concept of product life cycles, types of consumer behavior, merchandising and promotion technologies. As the result of analyzing and systematizing of scientific work of various scientists the concept of "category management" is generalized, its place in the methods of regulating commercial policy of the company has been defined. The stages and methods of category management have been revealed. The mechanism of ABC+XYZ matrix analysis for operational management range of pharmaceutical companies has been suggested. The specific commercial policy of retail pharmaceutical market has been investigated. The study identified areas of assortment optimization of drug products, the use of which make it possible to exclude the range of non-profit positions and to expand the range of drugs that provide the maximum amount of sales and are characterized by stable demand. The practical significance is the ability to regulate the profitability of individual entities of the retail segment of the pharmaceutical market by continuously monitoring the composition, structure and depth of range, the implementation of ABC+XYZ analysis and on that basis, competent management and display of goods procurement. Prospects for further research in this direction is the organizational mechanism of business process reengineering pharmacies on the basis of category management, the choice of best practices of categories role analysis for range management development.