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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 this change, Apoteket AB still had the largest single market share, with **** percent in 2023. However, Apotek Hjärtat had almost 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 *** pharmacies in Sweden. In 2010, the first year with no monopoly, the number of pharmacies operated by Apoteket AB had dropped to ***. During the period from 2010 to 2018, the number of pharmacies run by Apoteket AB fluctuated slightly, but increased overall and amounted to *** in 2018. The total number of pharmacies in Sweden that year was .

Overview of the pharmaceutical market

   As of 2023, 11 years after the decision of re-regulating the monopoly on the sales of pharmaceuticals was made, the largest actors, in terms of market share were Apoteket AB (**** percent), Apotek Hjättat (**** percent) and Kronans Apotek (**** percent). Additionally, the largest share of pharmacies’ revenues originated from prescription pharmaceuticals, which account for around ** percent of the total revenue.