Finasteride and Isotretinoin
(asked on 9th March 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many NHS prescriptions for (1) isotretinoin, and (2) finasteride, have been issued in each year since 2014.
The Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) provides the total number of prescription items of each medicine dispensed in the community in England. The following table shows the total number of items in each calendar year from 2014 to 2025 that have been dispensed in England:
Period | British National Formulary Chemical Substance | |
| Isotretinoin (1306010M0/1306020J0) | Finasteride (0604020C0/1309000W0) |
2014 | 78,837 | 2,717,411 |
2015 | 84,173 | 2,954,990 |
2016 | 87,505 | 3,176,498 |
2017 | 82,026 | 3,360,103 |
2018 | 69,040 | 3,564,023 |
2019 | 76,223 | 3,762,144 |
2020 | 59,541 | 3,864,669 |
2021 | 76,675 | 3,900,062 |
2022 | 70,196 | 4,052,091 |
2023 | 70,447 | 4,230,844 |
2024 | 64,502 | 4,463,271 |
2025 | 63,594 | 4,507,807 |
This is based on the information within the PCA for the British National Formulary chemical substance of Isotretinoin and Finasteride.