Anticoagulants
(asked on 25th June 2014) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the total number of prescriptive items for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium in England were for warfarin sodium in the last year for which figures are available.
Information is not held centrally on the number of people treated with warfarin or novel oral anticoagulants. The following table provides information on the number of prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom, for the latest calendar year, for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium.
Prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom for 2013 1 | |
Medicine 2 | Items (000s) |
Apixaban | 14.4 |
Dabigatran etexilate | 174.0 |
Rivaroxaban | 190.0 |
Warfarin sodium 3 | 11,022.8 |
Total for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium | 11,401.2 |
Percentage of warfarin sodium compared to the total for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium | 96.7% |
Source: ePACT and Hospital ePACT, NHS Prescription Services, part of the NHS Business Services Authority
Notes:
1. The figures include prescriptions written in a hospital in England but dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom.
2. These medicines are also used in secondary care, however no equivalent measure to a prescription item is available for secondary care data.
Some patients treated with warfarin may receive prescription items for two or three different strengths of warfarin to allow the dose to be altered in response to monitoring of INR. (NB: warfarin is available as 0.5mg, 1mg, 3mg and 5mg tablets).