The possibilities of better utilization of drug consumption statistics were discussed at a meeting at the Norwegian Board of Health in May 1976. At this meeting a working group was assigned the task of formulating recommendations for how to present and use the data compiled at the Norwegian Medicinal Depot (NMD), aiming at the medical professions. NMD was in the period 1957-1995 the only wholesaler of medicines in Norway. In December 1976 it was decided to issue an annual publication containing information on the consumption of drugs in Norway based on wholesale statistics.
This is the 33th edition of the report “Drug Consumption in Norway”. It is mainly organized according to the previous editions. We have chosen to present the report as a combined Norwegian/English edition. The main statistical chapters for each ATC group are only partly translated into English. ATC codes are included for all the substances in order to increase the comprehension for foreign readers. The first part of the report includes general comments to the total drug consumption. Specific comments to some ATC groups are included in the introduction to the respective main ATC groups.
The present edition includes data for the period 2006-2010 and the figures are based on sales from all drug wholesalers in Norway and include sales of over the counter medicines which are available in non pharmacy outlets. All wholesalers in Norway report total sales of medicines directly to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health on a monthly basis. A Norwegian Prescription database (NorPD) was from January 2004 established at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. NorPD includes prescribing information at the individual patient level from all Norwegian pharmacies. NorPD offers more detailed information about the drug use in the population. More information regarding the NorPD is available in a separate report (published annually since 2008) and on www.norpd.no. Prevalence data from NorPD are included in the introduction chapters to some of the main ATC groups in this book.
List of ATC and DDD changes valid from 1 January, see ATC/DDD Alterations 2011
For more information on the statistical presentation of drug consumption, please confer the introduction. In order to fully understand the statistical material in this book we recommend reading the introduction.
Requests regarding the statistics can be forwarded by email to
This report is also available on the website: www.drugconsumption.no
Oslo, March 2011