Apotek och läkemedel, hänger de ihop? : En studie i omregleringens effekt på läkemedelskonsumtion

Sammanfattning: During 2009 the Swedish government passed a proposition with the purpose of re-regulating the Swedish pharmaceutical market. Until then the pharmaceutical market had consisted of the monopolizing Apoteket AB. One of the purposes of the re-regulation was increasing the availability of pharmaceuticals through the possibility of privately owned pharmacies. This paper examines the effect of the increase of pharmacies on the number of expeditions of prescription pharmaceuticals. The effect is measured through a fixed-effects model using time and municipality to correct the results. A weak negative correlation between the number of pharmacies per citizen and number of expeditions of pharmaceuticals per citizen exists. However, the result cannot solely be accredited the increase in number of pharmacies. Different types of pharmaceuticals where analysed, without any measurable effect of increase in pharmacies on their expeditions, despite different types of demand. More sparsely populated municipalities see a positive correlation between pharmacies and pharmaceutical expeditions. This suggests different relations between pharmacies and expeditions in different types of municipalities.