A 12-month review of pharmaceutical drugs by research firm IMS reveals that the cholesterol-lowering drug rosuvastatin (Crestor from AstraZeneca) edged out the hypothyroid drug levothyroxine (Synthroid from AbbVie) to claim the position of the most prescribed drug in the US. The antipsychotic drug aripiprazole (Abilify by Otsuke Pharmaceutical) was the best-selling drug, according to the research conducted between October 2013 and September 2014.
Most Prescribed Drugs
In terms of prescription, rosuvastatin had approximately 22.3 million prescriptions followed closely by levothyroxine. The proton-pump inhibitor esomeprazole (Nexium from AstraZeneca) accounted for around 17.8 million prescriptions, while the asthma medication albuterol (Ventolin HFA from GlaxoSmithKline) also had around 17.8 million prescriptions. Fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (Advair Diskus from GlaxoSmithKline) stood at 14.5 million prescriptions.
The remaining ten most prescribed drugs include the insulin glargine injection (Lantus Solostar from Sanofi-Aventis), the attention-deficit drug lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse from Shire), the anti-epileptic drug pregabalin (Lyrica from Pfizer), the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease medication tiotropium bromide (Spiriva Handihaler from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals), and the antihypertensive drug valsartan (Diovan from Novartis).
Top Selling Drugs
According to the report, aripiprazole was the top selling drug with sales of $7.5 billion followed by the arthritis drug adalimumab (Humira from Abbot Laboratories) with sales of $6.7 billion. These two were closely followed by the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir (Sovaldi from Gilead Sciences) with sales of $6.7 billion, esomeprazole (Nexium from AstraZeneca) with sales of $6.1 billion, and rosuvastatin (Crestor from AstraZeneca) with sales of $5.8 billion.
Other top selling drugs include the arthritis drug etanercept (Enbrel from Amgen) with sales of $5.3 billion, fluticasone propionate/salmeterol (Advair Diskus from GlaxoSmithKline) with sales of $5 billion, the arthritis drug infliximab (Remicade from Centocor) with sales of $4.5 billion, the insulin glargine injection (Lantus Solostar from Sanofi-Aventis) with sales of $4.1 billion, and the neutropenia drug pegfilgrastim (Neulasta from Amgen) with sales of $3.8 billion.
Source: IMS
Image Credit: Pixabay.com
