Swedish Pharma Sales Continue To Rise

Expansion of the Swedish pharmaceutical industry is continuing, according to RUFI, the Association of Representatives of Foreign Pharmaceutical Industries. For the first nine months of 1994, it says, sales increased 16.8% to 8.60 billion Swedish kroner ($1.17 billion). On a moving annual total basis to end-September, sales were up 16.6%, it adds.

Meantime, the price index for pharmaceuticals (at pharmacy purchasing prices) increased 3.1% over the nine-month period, while the Consumer Price Index rose 2.6%. Pharmacy selling prices, excluding VAT, increased by 0.7%; the reason for this is that Apoteksbolaget, the state pharmacy group, lowered its mark-ups for prescription medicines by an average 2.5% from the beginning of 1994.

Commenting on the political scene, RUFI notes that the more or less official standpoint of the New Democratic Party, which came into power in September, is that the financial responsibility for the reimbursement system should be transferred from the National Social Insurance Board to the county councils. A reimbursement system run by 23 county councils, it adds, would certainly alter market conditions.