Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of drug treatments for gout in each of the last five years.
Data on the costs of a particular condition, for which a medicine is prescribed, is not collected. Information on the cost to the National Health Service of the medicines listed under British National Formulary (BNF) section 10.1.4 - Gout and cytotoxic-induced hyperuricaemia is shown in the table. These medicines include allopurinol, benzbromarone, colchicine, febuxostat, probenecid and sulfinpyrazone. Rasburicase is not included as it is used to treat cytotoxic-induced hyperuricaemia.
The BNF also states that acute attacks of gout are usually treated with non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) but, as it is not possible to identify what proportion of the NSAIDs dispensed were used specifically for the treatment of gout, these costs are not included.
Year | Net ingredient cost of drugs used in gout in primary and secondary care1 £000s |
2009 | 9,850.0 |
2010 | 12,449.7 |
2011 | 11,703.0 |
2012 | 14,445.3 |
2013 | 15,900.9 |
Source: Prescription Cost Analysis and IMS HEALTH: Hospital Pharmacy Audit supplied by the Health and Social Care Information Centre
1 The net ingredient cost does not include costs associated with prescribing, dispensing and related activities, and excludes discounts that may be applied.