THE annual release of the Australian Prescriber's top ten subsidised drugs in Australia for 2015-16 has seen the new hepatitis C listed drugs taking the very high profile position as highest cost to government, in spite of relatively low patient numbers compared to the script number rankings.
Hepatitis C treatments Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir) costing around $90,000 for 12 weeks therapy and Solvaldi (sofosbuvir) both from Gilead, topped the costing list, billing the government almost $1b for 43,000 scripts since listing in Mar this year.
Immunosuppressant Humira (adalimumab) from AbbVie, macular degeneration therapy Lucentis (ranibizumab) from Roche and its competitor Eylea (aflibercept) from Bayer were next on the funded top ten.
Top script volume products come as no surprise with anticholesterol and reflux medicines dominating.
Atorvastatin and rosuvastatin took positions one and three, while proton pump inhibitors esomeprazole and pantoprazole sit at two and five respectively, with paracetamol taking the fourth spot.
Antihypertensives in the form of ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers, stalwart diabetes therapy metformin, neuropathic pain treatment pregablin and respiratory support products salbutamol, fluticasone and salmetrol fill out the top ten by volume.
The figures are drawn from PBS and RPBS data for Jul 2015 to Jun 2016 - access the lists at nps.org.au.
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