The Norwegian Pharmacy trade
Norwegian pharmacies are mainly run as private enterprises. Only the hospital pharmacies are owned by the public sector. In spite of this, the pharmacies are considered part of the Norwegian health service. The pharmacies have approx. 6500 employees, the vast majority of whom are trained healthcare professionals. The fact that the trade involves both retailing and providing healthcare services creates unique challenges both for the trade itself and for the authorities.On 1 March 2001 the Norwegian government introduced new legislation, which led to greater changes to the trade than had previously been seen in the whole of its 400-year history. The biggest change was to how pharmacies are owned. Prior to 1 March 2001, all pharmacies were owned by trained pharmacists.
Since 1 March 2001, an increasing proportion of pharmacies have been taken over by chains. The biggest pharmacy chains are called Apotek 1, Boots apotek, Vitusapotek and Ditt apotek. To manage a pharmacy, you still need the appropriate professional training.
After the new legislation came into force on 1 March 2001, the number of pharmacies has increased by 310, an increase of more than 78 percent over 1 January 2001. In comparison, only 5 new pharmacies were established in 2000.
As of 1 January 2012 there were a total of 707 pharmacies in Norway. 675 of these were privately owned, whilst 32 were public sector hospital pharmacies. As of that date, there were on average approx. 6,959 inhabitants per pharmacy. At the end of 2000, the average number of inhabitants per pharmacy was 11,280.
Of the 675 private sector pharmacies, three of the large pharmacy chains wholly own 591 (almost 88 percent) of them. The remaining privately owned pharmacies are either owned by limited companies, which are often part-owned by the pharmacy chains, or by individuals.
Membership of the Norwegian Pharmacy Association by chain by January 1 2012:
| Chain | No. of pharmacies |
| Apotek 1 | 264 |
| Vitusapotek | 180 |
| Boots apotek | 147 |
| Ditt apotek | 63 |
| Hospital pharmacies | 32 |
| Independent | 21 |
| Total | 707 |