Market share of pharmacies in Sweden 2021-2022

Until 2009, the state-owned company Apoteket AB had a monopoly on selling pharmaceuticals in Sweden. After a decision to lift the monopoly in that same year, the market opened for other actors. Despite the move, as of 2022, Apoteket AB still had the largest single market share with 27.8 percent. However, Apotek Hjärtat had exactly the same market share, based on number of pharmacies.

Apoteket AB

   What happened to Apoteket AB after the monopoly was lifted? Before the re-regulation, the state-owned company operated 929 pharmacies in Sweden. In 2010, the first year with no monopoly, the number of pharmacies operated by Apoteket AB had dropped to 345. During the period from 2010 to 2018, the number of pharmacies run by Apoteket AB fluctuated slightly, but increased overall and amounted to 349 in 2018. The total number of pharmacies in Sweden that year was 1,422.

Overview of the pharmaceutical market

   As of 2022, ten years after the decision of re-regulating the monopoly on the sales of pharmaceuticals was made, there were 42 pharmacy actors in Sweden. The largest actors, in terms of market share were Apoteket AB (27.8 eprcent), Apotek Hjättat (27.8 percent) and Kronans Apotek (22.2 percent). Additionally, the largest share of pharmacies’ revenues originated from prescription pharmaceuticals, which account for around 72 percent of the total turnover.