Drugs to treat cardiovascular disease are the most commonly dispensed drugs in England, shows new report from The NHS Information Centre

Four of the top five most commonly prescribed drugs in England are used to treat cardiovascular disease, a new report from The NHS Information Centre shows today.

Simvastatin, aspirin, ramipril and bendroflumethiazide accounted for 12.9 per cent (109.3 million prescription items) of all items dispensed in primary care in 2009, but only 1.9 per cent (£160.3 million) of the total net ingredient cost.

The most commonly prescribed drug of the four was Simvastatin; in 2009 37.3 million prescription items of the drug were dispensed at a total net ingredient cost of £66.8 million.

Levothyroxine, third in the top five, is used in the treatment of hypothyroidism.

Tables of leading drugs for numbers and cost at chemical level are included for the first time in the report Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community; England, Statistics for 1999 to 2009, which also shows that in 2009:

  • 886.0 million prescription items were dispensed, a 5.2 per cent (43.5 million item) increase on the previous year and a 67.2 per cent (356.2 million item) increase on 1999.
  • The total net ingredient cost of all prescription items dispensed was £8,539.4 million, a 2.6 per cent (£213.9 million) increase on the previous year and a 61.4 per cent (£3,248.2 million) increase on 1999.
  • The average net ingredient cost per prescription item was £9.64, compared to £9.88 in 2008 and £9.99 in 1999.
  • On average 17.1 prescription items were dispensed per head of the population, compared to 16.4 in 2008 and 10.8 in 1999.
  • 66.1 per cent of all prescription items were dispensed generically, representing 28.3 per cent of the total net ingredient cost. This compares to 65.0 per cent of all items in 2008 (26.2 per cent of the total net ingredient cost) and 48.3 per cent of all items in 1999 (18.2 per cent of the total net ingredient cost).

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “Prescribing in England accounted for around £8.5billon in 2009 in terms of net ingredient cost, a substantial slice of the NHS budget. This report offers valuable information about the ingredients of that slice, in terms of the type of drugs we are prescribed and how much they cost.

“The treatment of cardiovascular disease dominates the top of the table in terms of the most dispensed prescription items within primary care, with four of the five most prescribed drugs used to help treat the disease.

“However it is interesting to note that while these four drugs account for almost 13 per cent of all prescription items dispensed in England, they represent just under two per cent of the total net ingredient cost.”

The full report can be accessed at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/presdisp99-09

On 30 July 2010 The NHS Information Centre will publish the report; Prescribing for Diabetes in England, 2004/05 to 2009/10.

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. This bulletin covers all prescriptions that were dispensed in England by community pharmacists, appliance contractors and dispensing doctors. The majority of prescriptions dispensed are written by GPs but prescriptions written by dentists and prescriptions written in hospital or a Community Health Trust are also included, provided they were dispensed by a community pharmacist.
  3. The bulletin shows the headline cost (net ingredient cost) of medicines before the deduction of discount or charges paid and therefore does not represent the actual cost to the NHS, however many overall messages are very similar. Net ingredient cost figures given here are not adjusted for inflation. Details of all items dispensed, including costs were published in The NHS Information Centre's Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) publication on April 2009.
  4. Definitions Prescription Item; Prescribers write prescriptions on a prescription form. Each single item written on the form is counted as a prescription item. Items per head of population; this bulletin uses mid-year resident population estimates based on the 2001 Census. British National Formulation (BNF) The BNF is a joint publication of the British Medical Association and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. It is published biannually under the authority of a Joint Formulary Committee which comprises representatives of the two professional bodies and of the UK Health Departments The BNF aims to provide prescribers, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals with sound up-to-date information about the use of medicines. The BNF includes key information on the selection, prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines. It is split into chapters by therapeutic class of drug. These notes are divided into 15 chapters, each of which is related to a particular system of the body or to an aspect of medical care. Each chapter is then divided into sections
  5. There have been changes in the costs of some commonly prescribed drugs. This is related to price changes under the Category M scheme. This is an arrangement where the net ingredient cost for selected generic formulations is controlled, with the aim of reducing costs overall. The drugs subject to the new arrangements are classified as Category M in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff. The majority of these formulations have fallen in price, although some have increased.
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