The pharmaceutical industry was developed in line with Soviet industrialization in general. This meant: a) there was an incredible amount of real work being done to bring even basic healthcare to places which had previously lacked anything. The industry was basically created from scratch from 1920 to 1960; b) the plans for modernization were normally highly unrealistic, particularly in terms of time allowed for the process; c) the attempts to educate a "new industrial elite" drawing from high priority populations (such as rural dwellers or minorities) were of mixed success, because in many cases they would attempt to teach highly complex subjects within a frame of months to people who barely had time to learn reading and writing; d) was subject to policy, perhaps the most notable of which would be the ban on "nizkopoklonstvo", that is - for considering foreign technologies to be better than local ones just because they are foreign. In many industries that meant foregoing advances made in other countries to give priority to those developed locally, regardless of quality; e) it was more economically feasible from the 1960s on to export raw materials for the production of medication to Europe for processing.

Quite a lot of work being done as early as in the 1920s to draw students from rural areas into the medical profession, with many becoming pharmacy technicians. Eventually, the Soviet Union largely forewent the traditional apothecary-based education of pharmacists, dividing the profession into pharmacists and chemists, with the latter working in the drug production industry. Many pharmacies were distribution-only; however, there was also a good number of pharmacies whose technicians actually made most of the medications on their shelves, and particularly tablets, salves, and teas. Precision work was done on rather low-tech devices, such as scales (for instance, these scales haven't changed much), and required considerable manual dexterity.

As for the pharmaceutical industry itself: there was a high interest in plant material, with whole industries built around the growing and harvesting of medicinal plants. Additionally, there were many "do it yourself" guides to medicinal plants, and very detailed descriptions of technical processing of plant material could be found in most libraries. This was part of the general Soviet campaign to educate the population and provide them with crucial information, as well as to utilize local industries and knowledge to the maximum possible level, including the collection of folk knowledge and integration of it into industry. Herbal remedies remain as stock supplies in apothecaries even today, with such titles as "Anti-cough mix #1". They are, however, less and less used in practice, as plant material is notoriously hard to harvest correctly and maintain stable levels of the necessary active chemicals in harvested products.

Sanitation and sterilization were of prime importance, with hospitals being held to very high standards of cleanliness. However, depending on region, because of the aforementioned unrealistic optimism, harsh penalties for failing to conform with overly optimistic requirements (which led to the concealment of faults all around Soviet industry), and the sheer amount of work that needed to be done to actually build hospitals all over the Soviet Union, it was also highly possible to encounter hospitals that only had basic equipment and required drugs on hand, if that.

I haven't been able to locate any contemporary studies on patient experiences in the Soviet Union. Contemporary folklore depicts Soviet medicine as both nightmarish and free, with popular public sentiment talking about "the horrors of Soviet medicine." What percentage of experiences was negative is hard to say. However, staff often worked long, grueling shifts, which didn't make them particularly kind to visitors. Additionally, supply of medication wasn't always particularly good: it was absolutely possible to wind up in a hospital where one's relatives would have to pull in all available contacts to even find the necessary medication. At the same time, it was also absolutely possible to luck out and end up in a hospital that would do an immensely complex surgical procedure completely for free.

Since your special interest is in pharmacology, it's probably worth mentioning that an aspect that certainly added to averse patient experiences was the fact that anesthesia was relatively undeveloped, and it was an area largely restricted to serious surgery rather than "routine" procedures. "Routine" procedures were more likely to be conducted without or under minimal anesthesia, which included a lot of dentist work (imagine having a root canal done without painkillers). The aforementioned preference for the export of raw materials rather than local production likely contributed to the minimal "home" manufacturing of anesthetic drugs themselves and the syringes used for their application. Surgical abortions without anesthesia also happened. Abortion was considered immoral enough to allow the patient to reap what they had sown. This will tell you something about the patient experience.

For further reading, Sergeeva M.S. (https://historymedjournal.com/volume/number_4/Histori_medical_4(4)-2014_Sergeeva.pdf) has an excellent selection of primary and secondary sources in her literature list. They are mostly in Russian and pertain to the early Soviet Union.

For illustrations, there is some photo journalism of late Soviet medicine done by David Turnley, Chris Niedenthal and Alain Nogues; however, I'm not a regular here and I'm not certain where photographs of medical procedures conducted on possibly still living persons fall on the privacy rule in this subreddit.