Stuffy nose, be gone! New pharmacy market in Sweden
Suffering from a cold, with a severely stuffed nose and light fever, I stumbled into a grocery store in my native country, Sweden. I was baffled to find that nose sprays and pain/fever relievers were not sold in the store. I actually had to go to a government owned pharmacy to purchase my remedy even though these were clearly OTC products.
This was in the early 2000s, and I had been living in the U.S. since 1995 and, apparently, forgotten about the Swedish pharmacy system faster than I could say “gesundheit”.
Sweden is according to a United Nations ranking of 154 nations, the most advanced nation in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). We pride ourselves for being extremely savvy on the tech side. Even though we’re known as a nation of early adaptors, we have clearly fallen behind in other areas.
But this is all in the past, today we’re facing a whole new reality. From July 1, 2009, there will be both government and private pharmacies in Sweden. They expect the deregulation of the Swedish pharmacy system to lead to more pharmacies, better opening hours as well as lower prices on pharmaceuticals due to price pressure. Go figure what some healthy competition can do!
However, many of us Swedes like our pharmacy system – at least the part of it with really competent staff. We feel safe in our pharmacy and feel comforted by the familiar look and feel. On the other hand, we do look forward to go to the corner store when the cold hits a late evening to pick up some OTC products (imagine the thrill of not having to wait for office hours). From November 1 this year, OTC products like allergy/cold medicine and pain relievers will be available for sale outside of pharmacies for the first time.
We will be following the developments on the Swedish pharmacy market with great interest. To be continued!
Tags: Pharmacy, Sweden
Posted by Kristina Ebenius on May 14, 2009 at 3:19 PM
