NEW YORK: Four brand-named drugs prescribed to older or disabled Americans covered by Medicare's drug benefit accounted for almost one-tenth of the US$103 billion in prescriptions filled under the plan in 2013, U.S. officials reported on Thursday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said AstraZeneca Plc's Nexium for acid reflux topped the list with prescriptions totaling US$2.5 billion, followed by US$2.3 billion of GlaxoSmithKline Kline Plc's Advair for asthma.
Third was AstraZeneca's cholesterol-lowering Crestor with US$2.2 billion worth of prescriptions, while Otsuka Corp's anti-psychotic Abilify was fourth with US$2.1 billion.
The data cover prescriptions filled under Medicare's prescription-drug benefit, called Part D, and is the first time it has been released publicly.
Medicare Part D went into effect as part of the government-run health insurance program for disabled Americans and those 65 and over in 2006. In 2013, 35.7 million beneficiaries were enrolled in Part D, or 68 percent of all Medicare patients.
The data include the total number of prescriptions that were filled, total days supply for these prescriptions, and their total cost. They also include prescription information for about 1 million healthcare providers.
Although the top 10 most-prescribed drugs were all branded medications, the top 10 by number of claims were all generics.
The most-prescribed Medicare drug was lisinopril, a cardiovascular drug that treats hypertension, with 36.9 million prescriptions. It was followed by the cholesterol-lowering drug simvastin, with 36.7 million; and the thyroid drug levothyroxine with 35.2 million.
In releasing the data, administration officials touted what they called another effort at "transparency," and said they hoped that as researchers and others dug into the data, important patterns might emerge.
"We know there are many, many smart minds in this country," Sean Cavanaugh, CMS deputy administrator, told reporters on Thursday, "and we want to unleash them on this data."
(Reporting by Sharon Begley; Editing by Alan Crosby)
- Reuters