Study: Statin costs 400% higher in U.S. than in U.K.

[Celebration]

http://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_articles&view=article&id=31064:study-statin-costs-400-higher-in-us-than-in-uk

Privately insured statin users between 55 and 64 years old in the U.S. paid 400 percent higher costs for the drug than did their counterparts in the U.K. whose drugs were paid through the government, according to a study published in the January issue of the journal Pharmacotherapy. The authors found generics cost substantially less in both countries.

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That earlier research allowed them to become adept using two electronic longitudinal databases that were critical in the design of the statin study. The databases included the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) in the U.K. and the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database in the U.S. The GPRD captures all prescriptions recorded in patient records while MarketScan covers claims of insured patients, including drugs dispensed and payment information.

For their study, Jick and colleagues identified 1.6 million people in each database who were younger than 65 years old in 2005. From that pool they whittled the total to 91,474 people in U.S. and 68,217 people in the U.K. who were between 55 and 64 years old and had been prescribed a drug in 2005. From that group they then identified 61,470 patients in the U.S. and 45,788 patients in the U.K. who were prescribed a statin and remained on that drug throughout the year. That group’s data were used for the cost analysis. Cost estimates were calculated in 2005 U.S. dollars.

They estimated that the cumulative cost for statin use in the U.S. in 2005 was nearly $65 million. The average cost per pill was highest for simvastatin (Zocor, Merck) at $3.91 a pill and lowest for lovastatin at 93 cents a pill.

In the U.K., annual cumulative costs totaled $15.7 million and the average cost per pill ranged from $1.40 for atorvastatin (Lipitor, Pfizer) to 45 cents for simvastatin.

[hedgehog]

1. I don't have the time nor the means to make a careful study of this,

but I've read enough to be dubious of the usefulness of statins in the first place! Maybe some or all of them help prevent heart disease, maybe some or all of them actually prevent heart disease by reducing cholesterol. But I won't be surprised if someday soon that cholesterol and heart disease are tied to other factors, that some statins help, but not for the reasons we think they do.