Correction notice - SNOMED codes in the national summary tables were incorrectly formatted.
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Published 8 June 2023
This page was last reviewed and updated 27 July 2023.
Summary
Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) provides details of the costs and volumes of all prescriptions dispensed in the community in England.
The Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) publication is a National Statistic release. National Statistics status means that PCA meets the highest standard of trustworthiness, quality, and public value and complies with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics.
The designation of this publication as a National Statistic was confirmed in May 2021 following an assessment by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). You can read more about this confirmation and the assessment of these statistics on the OSR website.
Key findings
In 2022-23:
There were 1.18 billion prescription items dispensed in the community in England at a cost of £10.4 billion. The number of items dispensed increased by 3% from 2021-22, while costs increased by 8%.
The most dispensed drug in England was Atorvastatin with 59 million items. Apixaban was the drug with the highest costs of £430 million.
Apixaban 5mg tablets was the presentation with the largest increase in cost since 2021-22, with an absolute increase of £280 million.
Resource list
Prescription Cost Analysis England 2022-23 - Statistical Summary Narrative (HTML)
National summary tables - financial year (Excel: 13.5MB)
National summary tables - calendar year (Excel: 13.0MB)
ICB summary tables - financial year (Excel: 96.2MB)
ICB summary tables - calendar year (Excel: 96.0MB)
Additional tables (Excel: 118KB)
Background information and methodology note (HTML)
Pre-release access list (HTML)
User engagement strategy (ODT: 228KB)
Management information
This data has been released to complement the Prescription Cost Analysis statistics, but is management information and is not an Official Statistic.
Exemption category management information (Excel: 20KB)
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Contact us
If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information you can email statistics@nhsbsa.nhs.uk.
Responsible statistician: Graham Platten