According to a study commissioned by the trade association, over-the-counter medicines are 37 percent cheaper in Sweden than in Finland, and the price difference between prescription medicines is large. The inflated price difference means an extra 400 million euros in medical expenses for Finns per year.
Mixed Self-medication and prescription drugs are clearly cheaper in Sweden than in Finland. The trade association had a price comparison of medicines done by a research company called Copenhagen Economics. The price differences are about potential savings of several hundreds of millions of euros each year.
According to the results, over-the-counter medicines were as much as 37 percent cheaper in Sweden than in Finland. The price difference was the biggest in the most common over-the-counter medicines, such as the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen, which was 44 percent cheaper in Sweden than in Finland.
The price of the common allergy medicine cetirizine in Sweden was only about half the price in Finland. In Sweden, many self-medications can be sold in regular grocery stores in addition to pharmacies.
Only some nutritional enzymes were more expensive in Sweden than in Finland.
in Finland the law has allowed limited competition on the prices of over-the-counter medicines, such as the most common painkillers, until 2022. According to the study, in the Finnish pharmacies included in the comparison, the price was almost always the maximum allowed price.
In only four percent of the hundreds of products compared, the price was below the maximum price in Finland.
By comparison, over-the-counter medicines were the cheapest in the online store in Sweden. For example, in October, you could get a 30-tablet ibuprofen package at its lowest price for only around 1.20 euros. In Finland, the corresponding price was around 3.9 euros.
The Swedish Pharmacy Association has previously estimated that allowing the sale of medicines in grocery stores has tightened price competition and lowered prices.
According to Apteekkariliitto, the price differences of over-the-counter medicines are mainly explained by the fact that pharmacies in Sweden are allowed to accept purchase discounts from pharmaceutical companies and transfer them to consumer prices. In Finland, pharmacies cannot do this.
“The aim of the restriction was to ensure the independence of pharmacies and that the discounts given by pharmaceutical companies do not control the pharmacy's drug purchases or the recommendation of the drug to customers,” says the CEO of Apteekkariliito Merja Hirvonen in the bulletin.
Apteekkariliitto also points out in the press release that the medicine pricing systems in Finland and Sweden differ significantly from each other.
Also the authors of the study state that it is not easy to compare the prices of medicines in all cases, because the products and market practices differ. However, in the vast majority of cases, the corresponding product was found for both over-the-counter and prescription drugs. The results have been weighted according to the sales share of each drug.
According to the study, prescription drugs are also on average 11 percent cheaper in Sweden than in Finland, even though pharmacies cannot directly compete with them.
When comparing only those medicines that are covered by the so-called reference price system, the price difference in Sweden compared to Finland is as much as 20 percent.
According to Kela, a drug belonging to the reference price system can be exchanged for a similar product at the pharmacy. The reference price is the highest price defined for the drug, for which compensation can be paid.
Prescription drugs was sold for 2,400 million euros in 2021, according to Kela's statistics. 359 million euros were spent on over-the-counter medicines.
An eleven percent price difference in prescription drugs would mean a saving of 264 million euros. A 37 percent price difference for over-the-counter medicines would mean a saving of 133 million euros in medicine costs for Finns.
In total, Finns spend about 400 million euros more on medicines every year because the prices are higher than in Sweden.
Kela paid 1.8 billion euros in medical reimbursements in 2022. Compensations paid increased by 51 million euros from the previous year.
“A drop in drug prices would directly reduce government spending, while consumers' purchasing power would improve,” says the CEO of Kaupan liitto Mari Kiviniemi.
in Sweden according to comparisons made by the Swedish authorities, the medicines are the cheapest in Europe.
What the countries have in common is that the prices of medicines covered by medical reimbursement are strictly regulated, and the reference price system, on the other hand, limits the pricing of medicines that have a competing equivalent product.
In Sweden, there are significantly more medicines covered by reference pricing than in Finland. In Finland, the reimbursability and reference prices of pharmacy drugs are decided by the price board under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, which, if necessary, negotiates prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Research commissioned by Kaupa liitto has for a long time pushed for allowing the sale of over-the-counter medicines in grocery stores and exempting the pharmacy business from the current licensing procedure, which limits the number of pharmacies.
In Sweden, pharmacy competition was liberalized in 2009.
Correction on January 9, 2024 at 2:48 p.m.: In the news, it was written that in Finland, a Burana package containing 30 tablets of ibuprofen was available for the cheapest price of 3.7 euros in October. In reality, you could get the cheapest 30 tablets containing ibuprofen for 3.94 euros.
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