Provided are an alternative medicine retrieval apparatus and an alternative medicine retrieval method capable of presenting information regarding an alternative medicine sufficiently suitable for a user' s preference and a pharmacy handling the alternative medicine to the user. An alternative medicine retrieval apparatus includes a database (30) that stores medicine information including attribute information of a medicine, a prescription slip data acquisition unit (50) that acquires prescription slip data, a preference information acquisition unit (52) that acquires preference information of a user regarding the attribute information of the medicine, a retrieval unit (54) that retrieves an alternative medicine by referring to the prescription slip data, the medicine information, and the preference information of the user, an information presenting unit that presents, to the user, alternative medicine information and information regarding a pharmacy handling a prescribed medicine and a pharmacy handling the retrieved alternative medicine, and an inspection information acquisition unit (42) that acquires medicine inspection information in the pharmacies, in which the database (30) updates the attribute information according to acquisition of the medicine inspection information.