About the Norwegian Pharmacy Association

The Norwegian Pharmacy Association (Apotekforeningen) is the trade body for pharmacies in Norway. All pharmacies are welcome to join. The association dates back to 1881, when it was founded to safeguard the interests of pharmacies, and to speak on behalf of members in their dealings with the authorities and other industries. The Norwegian Pharmacy Association is today an organisation that seeks to achieve its goals through an excellent understanding of the technical and political challenges facing pharmacies.

Purpose

The Norwegian Pharmacy Association’s main aims are to ensure that pharmacies have:

as good and predictable a regulatory framework as possible
as strong a position and framework as possible for competing with other sales channels within the product and service areas in which the pharmacies have, or wish to have, a commercial interest
a clear and valuable position in the Norwegian health care system, the pharmacy profession and in relation to consumers.

As a secondary purpose, the Norwegian Pharmacy Association performs tasks and carries out functions on behalf of the trade as and when the organisation’s members consider this appropriate. Such tasks and functions cannot be within areas defined by the members as competitive arenas.

As part of its secondary purpose, the Norwegian Pharmacy Association currently runs the Norwegian Article Number Registry (VRS), the Nordic Number Office (NNC), various educational services and a service production system, as well as the businesses that make up the AS Apotekernes Hus group, which include the IT company NAF-Data AS and the property company NAF-gårdene AS.

Members

All pharmacies, both those that are privately owned and the public sector hospital pharmacies, are currently members of the Norwegian Pharmacy Association. All groups of members are represented on the Association’s Board.

The Board

The Board is elected by the annual general meeting, and is responsible for the Association’s everyday activities. The Board normally meets every second month.