Drug utilization
We help organizations in understanding the utilization of drugs, that is how many people are using the drug in a given time and place, whether there have been changes in prescription patterns, if a specific public health intervention has affected the use of the medication, the uptake of new medications in the market, or whether they have effectively displaced already marketed drugs.
Case Example
Paracetamol is one of the most widely used pain medications worldwide. Although it is safe within its therapeutic range, doses higher to 4g a day can lead to hepatotoxicity, especially in frail and old people. In Switzerland, since 2003 paracetamol 1g can be purchased over-the-counter (OTC) without medical prescription.
Therefore, using data from the Swiss National Poison Center (Tox Info Suisse) and the National Pharmacists Association (PharmaSuisse) we conducted an interrupted time series analysis to study the dispensed paracetamol pills and the number of poisonings before and after the approval of the 1g formulation.
We found that after the 1g introduction there was a significant increase in paracetamol dispensing an poisonings in Switzerland.
Published in:
Martinez-De la Torre A, Weiler S, Bräm DS, Allemann SS, Kupferschmidt H, Burden AM. National Poison Center Calls Before vs After Availability of High-Dose Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) Tablets in Switzerland. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(10):e2022897. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.22897
Figure 1. Paracetamol sales by formulation in Switzerland
Figure 2. Interrupted time series analysis for paracetamol poisonings in Switzerland
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