Prisskillnader på läkemedel i Norden - En prisjämförelse av icke receptbelagda smärtstillande läkemedel mellan Danmark, Finland, Norge och Sverige

Sammanfattning: The thesis sets out to evaluate price differences on the Nordic market for non-patent covered pain relief medicines with the active substances’ acetylsalicylic acid, ibuprofen and paracetamol. It also sets out to evaluate the effect of first entrant on the prices of the active substances. The theory applied to understand price differences is a Bertrand product differentiation model and the method used is a linear multiple regression model with 486 observations. The regression shows that there is a significant difference in price between the countries and that Norway is the most expensive compared to Finland, Denmark and Sweden in descending order. The difference in price between the cheapest and the most expensive country is shown to be approximately 45 Swedish SEK. An effect on price depending on first entrant cannot be proven from the data set. According to the theory it seems that cost plays a larger role then differential quality.