page_title: Pharmacies of Norway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pharmacies of Norway / History
context_page_description: Pharmacies of Norway are dominated by the three large companies Alliance Boots, Apokjeden and Norsk Medisinaldepot. In total there are 606 pharmacies, of which only 16 do not belong to the four dominant chains Apotek 1, Vitusapotek, Boots apotek and Ditt Apotek. 33 pharmacies are state owned as pharmaceutical trusts.
context_section_description: The first pharmacy in Norway was Svaneapoteket in Bergen in 1595, followed by Svaneapoteket in Oslo in 1628, Hygiea in Stavanger in 1650, elefantapoteket in Kristiansand in 1651 and Løveapoteket in Trondheim in 1661. The first pharmacies received royal permit when they were established, and in 1600 it was decided that only private individuals trained as pharmacists could own a pharmacy, and would receive a monopoly in their area. This concept was kept for more than 400 years.
  The first dispansasion from this was given in 1856 when Rikshospitalet was given permission to establish a hospital pharmacy owned by the state. In 1950 a general permission for the state and municipalities to own hospital pharmacies was given. In 1957 the government created Norsk Medisinaldepot (NMD) that was granted the sole rights for wholesale of pharmaceutics in Norway, replacing five private wholesalers. The pharmacists on their hand owned the wholesaler of medical products, Apotekernes Fællesindkjøp, that was acquired by NMD in 1992.
caption: Johan F. L. Dreier: Løveapoteket in Bergen
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