The sales measured in DDDs for OTC medicines decreased by 6% in 2010. OTC medicines had a share of 16% of total sales measured in DDDs and about 12% of total costs. These shares have remained almost unchanged over time.
In 2010 the total sales of OTC medicines amounted to about 1 billion NOK (pharmacy purchase prices) which was similar to 2009.
Since there is no price regulation for OTC medicines, it is difficult to measure the actual cost in pharmacy retail prices (AUP) based on sales from wholesalers. For estimation of AUP for OTC medicines see page 12.
Tables 4 and 5
show the top ten OTCs, based on estimated pharmacy retail prices and DDDs respectively.