Influence on Physicians’ Prescribing Habits by Drug Licensing Authorities: Norway as an Example

Abstract

The most readily available information about prescription practices in Norway are provided by the sales data [1] from the Norwegian Medicinal Depot (NMD), which has had monopoly on the wholesale of drugs. This organization issues annual reports on drug sales, divided into therapeutic classes and substances, expressed in defined daily doses per 1000 inhabitants per day. More long-term overviews, for example 1974–1976 (the first issue), and 1984–1988 (the most recent one) are also given. For drugs of special interest, the sales figures are given for each of 19 counties. No information is given about specific products when a substance is sold under different brand names. We thus have difficulties in assessing the effect of opening generic competition on prescription practices.