The cost of prescriptions issued in the community decreases for the third year in a row | New

The cost of prescriptions dispensed in the UK community has decreased by almost 4%, the largest decrease in three years, according to figures released by NHS Digital.

In 2018, the bill of prescriptions issued amounted to 8.8 billion pounds sterling, 336.6 million pounds less than the 9.2 billion pounds spent in 2017.

The 3.7% drop in spending between 2017 and 2018 is well above the reductions of previous years. In 2017, prescription costs decreased by 0.41% and in 2016 by 0.67%.

The cost of prescriptions issued in the community increased for the last time in 2015: £ 9.77 billion was spent, or 4.68% more than in 2014.

Despite lower costs, the NHS Digital Prescription Cost Analysis revealed that the number of items distributed in 2018 had increased slightly by 0.3% – 2.9 million items – to reach a total of 1 , 1 billion items.

This figure was similar to previous years, where the number of items dispensed had slightly increased by 0.15% in 2017 and 1.89% in 2016.

Community pharmacist leaders believe that lower prescription costs reflect a more competitive market and the government's success in buying NHS drugs at lower prices, including generic drugs.

Hemant Patel, secretary of the Northeast London Local Pharmaceutical Committee and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Board of English Pharmacies, said, "Cost reduction does not mean that pharmacy compensation will be reduced.

"The price has gone down because the generic market is more competitive and it has been facilitated by pharmacists who buy drugs more wisely."

Patel attributed the slight increase in the number of items issued over the past three years to "deprescription" – taking over-the-counter products – and recalled recent government reforms to over-the-counter medications.

He said, "In some areas of the country, deprescription will be higher than others. It is the number of items distributed that will affect our revenues if the pharmacy compensation model does not change. "

According to the NHS Digital report, atorvastatin remained at the forefront of the most dispensed products in England in 2018, as it did in 2017.

The report revealed that the product accounted for 41.8 million items distributed, representing an increase of 12% over the previous year. This was the second-largest increase in medications among the top 20 medications.

Sertraline hydrochloride experienced the largest increase in prescriptions among the top 20 medications in the last 12 months. In 2018, nearly 15 million items were distributed, compared with nearly 13 million in 2017, an increase of 14.6%.

Simvastatin – the sixth most prescribed drug in 2018 – had the largest decline in prescriptions. In 2018, it accounted for 24.3 million items, compared with 27.2 million in 2017, a decrease of 10.7%.

Enteral nutrition was ranked first in terms of total net ingredient cost at £ 264m in 2018 compared to £ 258m in 2017, an increase of 2.2%. In 2017, he ranked second in the same table.

Apixaban went from ninth to third in the ranking based on total net ingredient cost. Its bill has risen from £ 150m in 2017 to £ 223m in 2018, an increase of 48%, which represents the largest increase in the top 20 drugs by net ingredient cost.

NHS Digital figures published in December 2018 revealed that in 2017/2018, the cost of list price drugs was £ 9.2 billion for hospital pharmacies – an increase of 10.8% compared to the previous year.

Quote: The pharmaceutical journal, online, online |

DOI: 10.1211 / PJ.2019.20206358