NHS hospital prescribing costs jump
pharmafile | October 19, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | hospital spending, prescribing
New and expensive treatments have driven up NHS prescribing costs in English hospitals, according to a new report.
IMS Health found 142 different drugs were prescribed last year at a total cost of £4.1 billion, but nearly a quarter of this went on just ten drugs.
Total prescribing costs in England, including primary care and community prescribing, reached a new high of £12.86 billion, up 4.8% on last year.
But the total cost of drugs prescribed in English hospitals has jumped to 7.7%, outstripping the 3.4% growth seen in primary care and the 4% increase in community prescribing.
The report, which was commissioned by the NHS, says that the greater rate of growth in medicines used in hospital is likely to be related to the introduction of new and innovative medicines, many of which have a relatively high cost.
Hospital prescribing costs
Topping the hospital spending table were two arthritis drugs, led by Abbott’s Humira (adalimumab), spending on which was up 19% to £180.5 million in 2010.
Humira took the 2009 top spot from Pfizer and Amgen’s arthritis drug Enbrel (etanercept), which came in a close second at £179.6 million.
Novartis’ eye disease drug Lucentis (ranibizumab) rounded off the top three with £128.9 million being spent on the drug, overtaking Roche’s breast cancer drug Herceptin.
The biggest drops came from J&J’s atypical antipsychotic drug Risperdal (risperidone), down 11.2% to £22.2 million, and schizophrenia drug clozapine, which fell 9.2% to £21.9 million in the face of generic competition.
The top 10 drugs were mainly biologics used to treat either autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, or cancers.
The difficulty in copying biologics means most will not succumb to the same generic pressures as many primary care drugs, and consequently the cost for the NHS in England will continue to grow. Manufacturers are likely to make more innovative forms of their existing drugs, which could further push costs up.
In contrast the primary care drugs bill, which takes up the majority (66%) of the £12.9 billion spent on medicines in the English NHS, is expected to shrink by around £1 billion over the next four years due to a raft of patent expiries.
|
Brand name |
Ingredient |
Manufacturer(s) |
Hospital cost: 2010 |
Growth from 2010 |
|
Humira |
adalimumab |
Abbot |
£180.5 million |
19.7% |
|
Enbrel |
etanercept |
Pfizer/Amgen |
£179.6 million |
12.6% |
|
Lucentis |
ranibizumab |
Novartis/Roche |
£128.9 million |
35.3% |
|
Herceptin |
trastuzumab |
Roche |
£105.8 million |
9.7% |
|
Remicade |
infliximab |
J&J |
£103.4 million |
14.4% |
|
MabThera |
rituximab |
Roche |
£93.6 million |
18% |
|
Glivec |
imatinib |
Novartis |
£55.2 million |
2.1% |
|
Taxotere |
docetaxel |
Sanofi |
£52.9 million |
7.2% |
|
Revlimid |
lenalidomide |
Celgene |
£49.6 million |
113.8% |
|
Eloxatin |
oxaliplatin |
Sanofi |
£44 million |
10.5% |
Source Hospital Prescribing, England: 2010 – data collated by IMS Health*
* The report’s authors note that hospital prescribing data is notoriously difficult to pin down as there is no central collation of information, and some hospitals may have been given price cuts for certain drugs that has not been shown in the data.
Ben Adams
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