Norway’s Impressive Healthcare to be Bolstered by Biotech Projects

Wednesday 10 April 2013, Amsterdam

Norway is excelling in the medical industry, conducting innovative research while aiming to improve the level of healthcare in the country, states a new report by research and consulting.

The new report states that the Norway has a growing elderly population, with approximately 21% of the population in 2012 aged over 60 years old. The healthcare system in Norway offers universal healthcare coverage to all citizens, and elderly populations place a high demand on healthcare systems as they are more prone to developing chronic diseases. Norway is witnessing a resultant rise in healthcare expenditure. Despite this, however, the country strives to care for its citizens and remain a part of the scientific research community.

Norway’s achievements in the healthcare system are impressive, but significant social inequalities remain. In an attempt to counter this, the Norwegian government passed the new Public Health Act in January2012, which aims to promote public health and reduce health inequality in terms of income, education and resource allocation.

Norway also introduced the Breast Cancer Screening Program in 2012, in order to reduce the mortality rate of the most common cancer among women. The government will now invite all women between 50 and 69 years of age to undergo a mammography every two years.

As for research, the government introduced a new national strategy for biotechnology in 2011, which designated funding of NOK90m (US$16m) for the new BIOTEK2021 program which replaces the Programme on Functional Genomics in Norway (FUGE). BIOTEK2021 will promote biotechnology research, to help develop the agricultural, marine, industrial and health sectors. In 2012 the government also announced plans to allocate approximately NOK110m (US$19.6m) to human biobanks and health data over the next five years, to explore the potential for research on human biological materials by combining analysis results with data from health surveys, registers and services.

The pharmaceutical market in Norway is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)of 2.7% from approximately US$3.3 billion in 2012 to US$4.1 billion in 2020, while the medical devicemarket is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.2% from US$1.3 billion in 2012 to US$1.9 billion in 2020.