466 Swedish state owned pharmacies for sale

The list of those for sale as a result of the long awaited decision last week in the parliament to abolish the pharmacy monopoly can be found here.

In all there is today 946 pharmacies today in Sweden. 466 of them will be sold to large or middle sized buyers like the finish Kronans Droghandel, German Celesio british Alliance Boots and Phoenix/Tamro.

150 of them will be transfered to a special governmental company in order to then be offered to SMEs. The rest stay in the hands of the old monopoly Apoteket.

Already by the threat of deregulation opening hours became more flexible its going to be very interesting to see what new services and consumer adaptation real competition will lead to. Soon one might even be able to actually get your prescribed medicines also on Saturday afternoon even if you live outside central Stockholm.

The deregulation is a result both of the change of government but also by a small company going to the European Court of Justice. As the European Court of Justice also looks into if other national regulations in for example Germany and Italy, for more info click here, on pharmacy ownership and establishment is against EU law the much needed modernisation of European pharmaceutical distribution logistics will most likely continue pan European.