Finland is a republic state, which became a member of the European Union in 1995. Its population is around 5,3 million. The capital Helsinki has 561 000 residents. In Finland there are 54 hopitals, 240 Health Centers and 805 Pharmacies.
Finland has around 22 000 doctors and in the business year 2008 over 43 million prescriptions were written. In Finland we have close to 2000 different prescription brands.
The wholesale value of medicines was 1,1,9 billion euros in 2008 including the wholesaling sales to pharmacies, hospitals and grocery stores. Sales were +7 % higher than in 2007. The value in of prescription-only medicine sales were over 1,7 billion euros while the sales of self-care medicines and free trade products together was 262 million euros. Compared with the previous year, the sales of prescription-only medicines were 7 % and self-care medicines 8% up.