Pricing and reimbursement of pharmaceuticals in Norway.

Although not a member of the EU, Norway participates in the European-wide regulatory framework for granting marketing authorization to pharmaceutical products. Maximum prices for prescription medicines are determined by the Norwegian Medicines Agency that sets pharmacy purchase prices (based on prices in other Northern European countries) and the Ministry of Health that sets pharmacy margins. A "discount sharing model" encourages pharmacies to perform parallel import and generic switching by allowing them to keep up to 50% of the difference between maximum price and actual price.

Winter excess mortality: a comparison between Norway and England plus Wales.

Seasonal fluctuations in mortality are associated with age, outdoor temperature, and influenza. The relative excess winter mortality is approximately twice as high in the UK compared with the Scandinavian countries. Using data from Norway and England plus Wales, this study compares the effect of age, temperature and influenza on winter excess mortality in the two countries.

Trends in diagnosis-specific mortality for the aging population in Norway, 1966-1986.

For the older segment of the Norwegian population, sex, age at time of death, and time-period of death are important factors to consider when describing cause-specific mortality trends. Correspondence analysis was applied to mortality and provided plots which in a conceptually simple way demonstrated the complex relations between sex, age, time-periods and causes of death. Log-linear modelling was used to confirm the findings of the correspondence analyses.