---

Anticoagulants

Answer

Information is not held centrally on the number of people treated with warfarin or novel oral anticoagulants. The following table provides information on the number of prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom, for the latest calendar year, for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium.

Prescription items written in England and dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom for 2013 1
Medicine 2	Items (000s)
Apixaban	14.4
Dabigatran etexilate	174.0
Rivaroxaban	190.0
Warfarin sodium 3	11,022.8
Total for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium	11,401.2
Percentage of warfarin sodium compared to the total for apixaban, dabigatran etexilate, rivaroxaban, and warfarin sodium	96.7%

Source: ePACT and Hospital ePACT, NHS Prescription Services, part of the NHS Business Services Authority

Notes:^1. The figures include prescriptions written in a hospital in England but dispensed in the community in the United Kingdom.^2. These medicines are also used in secondary care, however no equivalent measure to a prescription item is available for secondary care data.

Some patients treated with warfarin may receive prescription items for two or three different strengths of warfarin to allow the dose to be altered in response to monitoring of INR. (NB: warfarin is available as 0.5mg, 1mg, 3mg and 5mg tablets).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL624; 754 cc234-5WA

Session

2014-15

Subjects

Anticoagulants

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk