Medicines to the value of 17.4 billion Norwegian kroners (NOK) were sold last year in Norway – the equivalent of 3, 700 kroner per inhabitant. The increase in 2007 was 3.4 percent compared to 2006. These figures come from the Wholesaler-based Drug Statistics maintained by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.
Measured in defined daily doses (DDD), turnover increased in 2007 by 4.9 percent and in 2006 the increase was 4.1 percent. From 2003-2007, the annual growth in both kroner and dosage was at similar levels.
New edition
"Drug Consumption in Norway 2003-2007" contains detailed data on sales of individual drugs from wholesalers to pharmacies, health institutions and non-pharmacy outlets. Written in both Norwegian and English, the publication can be downloaded as a pdf file or accessed from www.drugconsumption.no.
These statistics give an overview of sales of drugs, but they do not give information about the patients who use them. Some data from the Norwegian Prescription Database are included in the publication but more detailed statistics can be extracted from www.norpd.no (available in English). This interactive database contains information from pharmacies about dispensed drugs from 2004-2007.