Pharmacies of Norway are dominated by the three large companies

Alliance Boots Alliance Boots GmbH was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom. The company had a presence in over 27 countr ...

Apokjeden Apotek 1 Gruppen AS is a Norwegian pharmacy wholesaler (''Apokjeden Distribusjon AS'') and retailer (Apotek 1) owned by German Phoenix Pharmahandel. It owns the largest pharmacy chain in Norway, Apotek 1. The company started a cooperation with a ...

and

Norsk Medisinaldepot Norsk Medisinaldepot AS is a pharmaceutics and healthcare products wholesaler in Norway. It also operates the pharmacy chains Vitusapotek and the franchise chain Ditt Apotek. NMD is part of the Celesio group and has a total of 185 pharmacies in N ...

. In total there are 606

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

, of which only 16 do not belong to the four dominant chains

Apotek 1 Apotek 1 is a large pharmacy chain in Norway, owned by Apotek 1 Gruppen AS with more than 400 outlets all over Norway. The chain was established in 1999, expanded massively since the deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reduc ...

Vitusapotek Vitusapotek is a chain of 300 pharmacies in Norway owned and run by Norsk Medisinaldepot, a subsidiary of McKesson Europe. The pharmacy chain is based in Oslo, and is the second largest in Norway, after Apotek1. The chain was established in 2 ...

, Boots apotek and

Ditt Apotek Ditt Apotek is a chain of 80 pharmacies owned and run by independent pharmacists on franchise from Norsk Medisinaldepot, a subsidiary of McKesson Europe. The chain is the fourth largest, and thus smallest, in Norway. The chain was established in ...

. 33 pharmacies are state owned as

pharmaceutical trust Health trust or HF ( no, helseforetak) is a health enterprise owned by one of the four regional health authorities in Norway, with responsibility for performing a geographic and/or specialist activities of operations on behalf of the regional heal ...

Structure

After the ''Pharmacy Act'' then was enforced on March 1, 2001, anyone could own a pharmacy. This has resulted in three corporate chains as well as one for independent stores, including 33

hospital pharmacies A hospital pharmacy is a department within a hospital that prepares, compounds, stocks and dispenses inpatient medications. Hospital pharmacies usually stock a larger range of medications, including more specialized and investigational medicatio ...

and 16 independent outlets. Of the 606 pharmacies, 480 are owned by the chains, 33 are owned by the pharmaceutical trusts, 47 are

franchises Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

while 16 are

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. Only 25 pharmacies, owned by 20 pharmacists, are not partially owned by the chains.

Chains

The three largest chains are vertical owned by the wholesalers while

is a franchise concept owned by Norsk Medisinaldepot. All the hospital pharmacies use Alliance Healthcare as supplier. *

(owned by Apotek 1 Gruppen, part of Phoenix Pharmahandel): 425 outlets *

(owned by Norsk Medisinaldepot, part of Celesio: 284 outlets * Boots apotek (owned by

AmerisourceBergen AmerisourceBergen Corporation is an American drug wholesale company that was formed by the merger of Bergen Brunswig and AmeriSource in 2001. They provide drug distribution and consulting related to medical business operations and patient se ...

): 149 outlets *

(independents): 71 outlets * Independent: 27 outlets

Hospital pharmacies

The four regional health authorities each own a pharmaceutical trust, organized as a

health trust Health trust or HF ( no, helseforetak) is a health Company, enterprise owned by one of the four regional health authority (Norway), regional health authorities in Norway, with responsibility for performing a geographic and/or specialist activities ...

, that manages hospital pharmacies. But some hospitals instead use commercial pharmacies that are part of the chains. All 33 hospital pharmacies belong to Ditt Apotek. Total revenue in 2006 was

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these ...

3.5 billion. *

Southern and Eastern Norway Pharmaceutical Trust Southern and Eastern Norway Pharmaceutical Trust ( no, Sykehusapotekene ANS) is a health trust owned by Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority that operates nineteen hospital pharmacies. The pharmacies are part of the Ditt Apotek ...

: 19 outlets * Western Norway Pharmaceutical Trust: 6 outlets *

Central Norway Pharmaceutical Trust Central Norway Pharmaceutical Trust ( no, Sykehusapotekene i Midt-Norge HF) is a health trust owned by Central Norway Regional Health Authority that operates four hospital pharmacies at St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Kristiansund Hospital, Mo ...

: 4 outlets *

Northern Norway Pharmaceutical Trust Hospital Pharmacy of North Norway Trust ( no, Sykehusapotek Nord HF, se, Davvi Buohcceviessoapotehka) is a health trust owned by Northern Norway Regional Health Authority that operates six hospital pharmacies. The pharmacies are part of the Dit ...

: 4 outlets

History

The first pharmacy in Norway was ''Svaneapoteket'' in Bergen in 1595, followed by ''Svaneapoteket'' in Oslo in 1628, ''Hygiea'' in Stavanger in 1650, ''elefantapoteket'' in Kristiansand in 1651 and ''Løveapoteket'' in Trondheim in 1661. The first pharmacies received royal permit when they were established, and in 1600 it was decided that only private individuals trained as

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist (Commonwealth English) or a druggist (North American and, archaically, Commonwealth English), is a healthcare professional who prepares, controls and distributes medicines and provides advice and instructi ...

s could own a pharmacy, and would receive a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

in their area. This concept was kept for more than 400 years. The first dispansasion from this was given in 1856 when

Rikshospitalet Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet is one of the four main campuses of Oslo University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. It was an independent hospital, ''Rigshospitalet'', later spelled ''Rikshospitalet'' ("The National Hospital"), from 1826 to 2009 ...

was given permission to establish a hospital pharmacy owned by the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

. In 1950 a general permission for the state and

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

to own hospital pharmacies was given. In 1957 the government created

(NMD) that was granted the sole rights for

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

of pharmaceutics in Norway, replacing five private wholesalers. The pharmacists on their hand owned the wholesaler of medical products, Apotekernes Fællesindkjøp, that was acquired by NMD in 1992.

Deregulation

The first deregulation was of the wholesalers in 1995. This resulted in two competitors of NMD entering the country,

, at first owned by the pharmacists and later by Finnish Tamro, and

Alliance Unichem Alliance Boots GmbH was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom. The company had a presence in over 27 coun ...

. NMD was at first partially

privatized Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in 1997, and then fully sold to

Celesio McKesson Europe AG (formerly Celesio AG, previously Gehe AG), with its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, is a leading international wholesale and retail company and provider of logistics and services in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sect ...

in 2001. On March 1, 2001 a new law was passed giving the right for anyone to own a pharmacy, with the exception of

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s and the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops, produces, and markets drugs or pharmaceutical drugs for use as medications to be administered to patients (or self-administered), with the aim to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate symptoms. ...

. Norway went with this from having one of the most regulated to the least regulated pharmacy markets in Europe. This resulted in a huge consolidation of the pharmacy market, with

vertical integration In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...

of the wholesalers and retailers. By 2007 84% of all pharmacies are wholly owned by the three wholesalers, and only 16 pharmacies remain outside the chains. At the same time the number of pharmacies has increased from about 400 to more than 600. The dominating new establishments are occurring as establishments close to established pharmacies, and is very little degree in areas without pharmacies.

References

{{Pharmacy