Governing by drugs : Conniving patients, beguiled doctors and disciplining drugs
In April 2001, the Swedish government decided to immediately remove Viagra from the public pharmaceutical reimbursement system (Swedish Book of Statutes 2001, 140). All patients who still wanted their use of these pharmaceuticals to be subsidized were henceforth required to submit individual applications for subsidy to the government itself. This highly publicized and much-debated decision marked a clear break with the established practice whereby prescription drugs that were granted marketing approval were consistently included in the public pharmaceutical benefits scheme. Under this scheme, patients prescribed subsidized drugs paid only a portion of their direct cost. Following the government's decision, Viagra was still available for purchase in pharmacies by those holding prescriptions, but the patients were now to assume the cost.