Oodles of fascinating and important data on the use of medicines in the United States hot off the presses from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
And the policy implications are enormous.
Some tidbits to jump start your cogitation process:
* Medicare Part D beneficiaries filled 871Mn prescriptions in 2010, up 6.4% and accounting for nearly 22% of all prescriptions.
* Spending on branded drugs totaled $229Bn, but declined by 0.7%, while spending on unbranded generics increased 21.7% and branded generics by 4.5%.
* Spending on medicines mainly dispensed by primary care physicians grew by 0.5%, while those medicines primarily used by specialists grew by 4.8%.
* Small molecule spending totaled $240Bn, an increase of 0.5% as biologics grew by 6.6%, amounting to $67Bn.
* Spending on drugs through retail channels increased by 2.0%, while institutional channels rose by 3.0%.
* Oral forms of medicines declined by 0.1%, but spending on injectables increased by 5.7%.
* New therapy starts for 17 chronic conditions declined by 3.4Mn patients in 2010.
* 3.2Mn more patients started their therapy with a generic while 6.6Mn fewer patients started therapy with a brand.
* Continuations and refills within 17 chronic therapy areas increased by 6.7Mn in 2010.
* Generic continuations increased by 11%, or 67.8Mn in 2010, and now represent about two-thirds of all continuations.
* The number of brand continuations declined by 12% or 61Mn prescriptions in 2010.
* The top 5 classes in 2010 based on spending were oncologics ($22.3Bn), respiratory agents ($19.3Bn), lipid regulators ($18.7Bn), antidiabetes (16.9Bn) and antipsychotics ($16.1Bn).
* Absolute spending growth gains were highest for antidiabetes, antipsychotics, respiratory agents, HIV antivirals and autoimmune disease.
The complete report can be found here.
