Finland is a Northern European coun-try of 5.2 million people bordered by

came the only Nordic state to join the Euro monetary system. Healthcare expen-diture in 2003 was €11.24 billion, or 7.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), with the government responsible for 76.5 % of all healthcare expenditure.1 The life ex-pectancy at birth in 2004 was 75.3 years for men and 82.3 years for women.2 Al-most 40 % of excess mortality among working-age people is due to circulatory disorders, and 43 % of people on disability pensions were awarded their pension due to a mental health disorder. Finnish health policy is guided by 2 main objectives: securing the best health for the population and minimizing the disparities in health between different population groups.2 Since 1980, subse-quent versions of the Health for All Poli-cy have sought to develop and promote a comprehensive approach to health care that encompasses all public policy deci-sion-making. Pharmacies and pharma-ceutical products are regulated by the National Agency for Medicines (NAM). The NAM is re-sponsible for monitoring the safety of medicinal products, medical devices, and blood products, tasks that it performs in collaboration with other EU member states and the Eu-ropean Medicines Agency. NAM works under the Min-istry of Social Affairs and Health. The Ministry directs and guides policies of social protection, social welfare, and health care. In 2003, the Ministry outlined key pharmaceu-tical policy objectives for the first time (Table 1). One of the outcomes was to create The Centre for Pharmacothera-py Development, primarily to collect and deliver informa-tion to promote evidence-based prescribing by family physicians