Nervous system, oncology agents and immunosuppressants funding and dispensing data
7 April 2021
Dear [name and contact details withheld]
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
Thank you for your request dated 2 March 2021 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to nervous system, oncology agents and immunosuppressants medicines dispensing data.
You clarified and confirmed your request with us on 11 March 2021. From your email on this date, you requested:
The annual gross cost, total medicines dispensed and average prescriptions per prescriber split by calendar year and sub-therapeutic group [below] from 2016-2021 to date.
Therapeutic groups requested:
- Analgesics
- Antidepressants
- Antiepilepsy drugs
- Antinausea and vertigo agents
- Chemotherapy agents
- Endocrine therapy
- Immunosuppressants
- Sedatives and hypnotics
Please find the data requested in the tables below included within this response.
Please note:
- Data is provided for medicines funded via Section B (Community) of the Pharmaceutical Schedule (Schedule) only; medicines funded via Section H (Hospital) of the Schedule have not been included in this data.
- The number of dispensings reported does not equal the number of unique people receiving dispensings. People can receive multiple dispensings.
- Data provided is for calendar years 2016-2021 (to date).
- Data was extracted on 30 March 2021. This means data provided for 2021 is incomplete.
- Average prescriptions per prescriber is calculated by the number of unique initial prescriptions issued, divided by the number of unique prescribers.
You may also find the top 20 therapeutic groups by gross spend and top 20 community medicines by number of funded prescriptions dispensed from our 2019/20 Year in Review useful.
We've published the Year in Review (previously the Annual Review) since 1995. Visit our website to view all our published key reporting documents
We trust that this information answers your queries. We are making our information more freely available, so we will now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this.
Yours sincerely
Rachel Read
Manager, Policy and Government Services
Table 1: Analgesics dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$19,720,999.69 |
7,834,297 |
240.67 |
|
2017 |
$18,662,331.51 |
8,019,154 |
240.68 |
|
2018 |
$18,114,107.41 |
8,075,648 |
232.59 |
|
2019 |
$17,775,438.86 |
8,533,830 |
237.12 |
|
2020 |
$22,517,536.91 |
8,552,903 |
220.65 |
|
2021 |
$4,196,386.83 |
1,469,911 |
49.69 |
Table 2: Antidepressants dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$13,301,869.80 |
3,778,576 |
131.99 |
|
2017 |
$10,387,878.65 |
3,959,577 |
134.21 |
|
2018 |
$8,530,541.51 |
3,867,836 |
132.19 |
|
2019 |
$8,421,209.14 |
3,986,883 |
135.97 |
|
2020 |
$9,628,137.94 |
4,792,900 |
142.16 |
|
2021 |
$1,582,593.28 |
809,609 |
33.17 |
Table 3: Antiepilepsy drugs dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$34,420,089.25 |
1,283,039 |
42.50 |
|
2017 |
$36,580,193.06 |
1,387,307 |
43.69 |
|
2018 |
$37,443,429.75 |
1,498,872 |
44.51 |
|
2019 |
$31,908,346.87 |
1,583,578 |
48.04 |
|
2020 |
$26,246,898.58 |
1,756,975 |
50.99 |
|
2021 |
$4,526,990.63 |
294,454 |
12.13 |
Table 4: Antinausea and vertigo agents dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$2,753,260.86 |
638,231 |
39.76 |
|
2017 |
$2,790,578.17 |
658,810 |
39.61 |
|
2018 |
$2,777,174.68 |
680,732 |
39.09 |
|
2019 |
$2,983,868.75 |
705,349 |
40.33 |
|
2020 |
$3,030,871.10 |
695,057 |
36.97 |
|
2021 |
$543,773.68 |
121,758 |
9.26 |
Table 5: Chemotherapeutic agents dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$80,600,839.32 |
318,848 |
37.15 |
|
2017 |
$85,152,183.90 |
324,977 |
35.97 |
|
2018 |
$90,496,188.31 |
332,019 |
34.53 |
|
2019 |
$94,249,168.91 |
349,253 |
35.09 |
|
2020 |
$124,497,136.41 |
416,444 |
36.74 |
|
2021 |
$22,902,034.80 |
62,205 |
8.40 |
Table 6: Endocrine therapy dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$30,415,914.16 |
97,662 |
10.23 |
|
2017 |
$34,230,985.29 |
103,385 |
10.20 |
|
2018 |
$37,473,061.85 |
112,718 |
10.40 |
|
2019 |
$38,557,534.48 |
113,637 |
10.64 |
|
2020 |
$45,919,938.31 |
147,762 |
11.15 |
|
2021 |
$8,005,259.65 |
21,490 |
2.95 |
Table 7: Immunosuppressants dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$ 171,663,734.10 |
192,385 |
14.77 |
|
2017 |
$ 207,010,906.55 |
208,871 |
15.33 |
|
2018 |
$ 233,504,379.83 |
229,849 |
15.92 |
|
2019 |
$ 307,792,857.13 |
270,158 |
18.58 |
|
2020 |
$ 346,002,880.48 |
318,687 |
20.51 |
|
2021 |
$55,556,460.33 |
53,601 |
4.96 |
Table 8: Sedatives and hypnotics dispensing data 2016-2021 (to date)
|
Calendar year |
Gross Cost |
Number of dispensings |
Average prescriptions per prescriber |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2016 |
$1,600,777.70 |
1,389,068 |
58.47 |
|
2017 |
$1,927,449.15 |
1,430,310 |
58.51 |
|
2018 |
$3,495,840.37 |
1,493,219 |
57.43 |
|
2019 |
$4,613,103.18 |
1,518,204 |
57.85 |
|
2020 |
$5,766,108.42 |
1,564,589 |
58.62 |
|
2021 |
$1,060,220.66 |
262,640 |
14.07 |