Painkillers and other prescription free drugs may soon appear in local supermarkets as Sweden has sold off a large part of its Apoteket retail pharmacy monopoly.

Sweden's center-right government took a large step forward in its re-regulation of the pharmacy market as it had sold off part of its Apoteket retail pharmacy monopoly for 5.9 billion kronor ($845 million) to private investors.

Its also a step forward for Swedes wanting to buy painkillers and other put prescription free drugs in their local supermarkets.

The Swedish government said that putting an end to the Apoteket monopoly would improve the availability of medicines for customers in the form of more pharmacies and longer opening hours, and create downward pressure on prices as more providers entered the market.

“There has been a relatively poor availability to pharmacy services in Sweden and we see a strong opportunity to expand the business within Apotek Hjärtat”, says Fredrik Strömholm, partner of Apotek Hjärtat's owner Altor Equity Partners, that has bought 208 pharmacies, with a turnover of 7.1 billion kronor and 1,500 employees.

“Our ambition is to build the leading Swedish pharmacy retail chain in terms of competence, quality of advice, product offering, and operational efficiency”.

Investor, the industrial holding firm controlled by the influential Wallenberg family, has acquired 24 pharmacies, with a turnover of 1.4 billion kronor and 230 employees. In collaboration with Priveq Investment Investor own Vårdapoteket i Norden AB.

Also Kronans Droghandel Retail AB (owned by Oriola-KD and KF) and Medstop Holding AB (owned by Segulah) have acquired pharmacies.

"We feel that this creates a good market structure made up of a number of actors with varying emphasis and geographical coverage," said Eva-Britt Gustafsson, MD of Apoteket Omstrukturering, a company formed to manage the reregulation.

Some 320 companies have applied for a license to sell the 540 drugs that has became legal for shops to sell -- that previously has only been on sale in the state run pharmacy. Super market giants such as Coop and ICA are also said to be ready to put prescription free drugs such as paracetamol and cough syrup on display.

Apoteket is a state-owned limited liability company, which has had the exclusive right to sell pharmaceuticals in the Swedish market since 1970. However, a reregulation of the Swedish pharmacy system was initiated in 2008 and from July 1 the consumer market is opened up to other operators.

Two thirds of Apoteket’s 946 pharmacies will become private. Some 150 of them will be run as small businesses while large corporations and grocery chains will run the rest.

In 2008, Apoteket’s sales amounted to 41,710 million kronor (€3,791 million) and operating earnings amounted to 950 million kronor. The average number of employees was 10,666.