Prescription volume causes continued rise in drug costs. (Briefing).U.S. spending on prescription drugs prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug, rose 17% in 2001, the fourth year in a row to see escalation es·ca·late v. es·ca·lat·ed, es·ca·lat·ing, es·ca·lates v.tr. To increase, enlarge, or intensify: escalated the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. v.intr. of 17% or more. The rise is attributed to the increase in both the volume and expense of drugs, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new study. Spending on drugs doubled from 1997 to 2001, rising from $78.9 billion to $154.5 billion, according to the study by the National Institute for Health Care Management. A rise in the volume of prescription drugs sold was the major factor for the increase in pharmaceutical costs in 2001, the report said. A shift to more expensive and mostly new drugs in 2001 also had a big effect. The average price of a prescription rose 10% to $49.84 in 2001 from $45.27 in 2000. Marketing to both consumers and doctors of new, more expensive drugs had an effect, increasing spending by 36% in 2000 and 24% in 2001, the report said. The institute had no way to quantify Quantify - A performance analysis tool from Pure Software. how much of the increase in spending reflected patients' requests for drugs from doctors, said Steven Ste´ven n. 1. Voice; speech; language. Ye have as merry a steven As any angel hath that is in heaven. - Chaucer. 2. An outcry; a loud call; a clamor. To set steven to make an appointment. Findlay Findlay (fĭn`lē, fĭnd`lē), city (1990 pop. 35,703), seat of Hancock co., NW Ohio, on the Blanchard River; inc. 1887. Petroleum products, tires, washing machines, heavy machinery, and plastic goods are among its many manufactures. , the author of the report. "We've hypothesized that it's an increasing factor" he said. "But there's a lot of difficulty tweaking tweaking Vox populi Fine-tuning to produce optimal results out the independent effect of consumer promotion from marketing and advertising to doctors." The report also said the rise in spending was related to more cases of chronic conditions and increased coverage of prescription drugs by managed-care plans in the past 10 years. Popular Prescriptions The National Institute for Health Care Management noted a sharp rise in the volume of prescriptions for just 50 of the almost 10,000 drugs studied. Those drugs accounted for 62.3% of the increase from 2000 to 2001 and included: Drug Increase Ulcer drug Protonix 490.0% Antidepressant Celexa 54.5% Painkiller OxyContin 41.0% Arthritis drug Vioxx 33.5% Antipsychotic drug Zyprexa 28.6% Cholesterol drug Zocor 24.0% Cholesterol drug Lipitor 22.3% Source: National Institute for Health Care Management |
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