Express Scripts’ 2016 Drug Trend Report: 7 things to know
6. Pain medication spending is driven by two brand-name medications. Pain medications are the fifth costliest class of drugs.
One in five people filled a prescription for a pain medication in 2016. Despite a 95% generic fill rate for this class of drugs, spending was driven by just two brand-name medications: Lyrica (pregabalin) and OxyContin (oxycodone).
When you consider that there is an estimated 100 + million chronic pain pts – about 1/3 of the USA population … and… 20% of the population had filled a prescription for pain medications… including those needing pain meds for acute pain…does this suggest that there is a gross UNDER TREATMENT OF PAIN IN THIS COUNTRY.
Filed under: General Problems
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