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Norway Model Offers Key To Unlock More Complex Switches

 
• By Tom Gallen

Norway's move to encourage more innovative Rx-to-OTC switches has begun to bear fruit with the recent reclassification of Pfizer's Viagra. The country's decision to introduce a new non-prescription drug category to promote switching can be used as a model for securing a new wave of more complex switches elsewhere around the world.

Norway flag

Norway’s decision to switch Pfizer’s blockbuster drug Viagra from prescription-to-OTC status last month means it has joined a very select group of countries globally that have reclassified erectile dysfunction treatment sildenafil. Just Poland, New Zealand and the UK have up until now allowed sildenafil to be supplied without a prescription.

By succeeding with its Viagra switch, Pfizer became the first firm to benefit from a recent change of law in Norway designed to increase the number of drugs available without...

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