Table 2.
Dispensed Multisource Prescriptions*
| Drug Classes and Select Multisource Drugs† | Prescriptions Filled for Multisource Medications, n (%) |
Multisource Medications Filled as Brand Name, % |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medicare | VA | Medicare | VA | |
| Oral hypoglycemic (overall) | 10 385 905 (100) | 5 098 778 (100) | – | – |
| Multisource hypoglycemics | 8 039 310 (77.4) | 4 701 283 (92.2) | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| Metformin | 3 858 287 (37.1) | 2 178 778 (42.7) | 1.3 | 0.1 |
| Glipizide | 1 761 020 (17.0) | 1 341 495 (26.3) | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| Glyburide | 1 005 586 (9.7) | 1 105 382 (21.7) | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Statins (overall) | 6 095 802 (100) | 3 880 351 (100) | – | – |
| Multisource statins | 3 335 724 (54.7) | 3 483 255 (89.8) | 0.5 | 2.3 |
| Simvastatin | 2 391 498 (39.2) | 3 152 515 (81.2) | 0.4 | 2.5 |
| Lovastatin | 526 221 (8.6) | 183 289 (4.7) | 0.9 | 0.02 |
| Pravastatin | 418 005 (6.9) | 147 451 (3.8) | 0.8 | 0.6 |
| ACE inhibitors/ARBs (overall) | 7 274 793 (100) | 3 907 993 (100) | – | – |
| Multisource ACE inhibitors/ARBs | 4 724 142 (64.9) | 3 136 052 (80.2) | 4.2 | 0.3 |
| Lisinopril | 2 224 565 (30.6) | 2 493 730 (63.8) | 0.2 | 0.01 |
| Enalapril | 531 402 (7.3) | 145 615 (3.7) | 0.5 | 0.08 |
| Lisinopril–hydrochlorothiazide | 354 640 (4.9) | 237 225 (6.1) | 0.4 | 0.1 |
ACE = angiotensin-converting enzyme; ARB = angiotensin-receptor blocker; VA = Veterans Affairs.
*
“Medicare” refers to patients enrolled in fee-for-service Parts A, B, and stand-alone Part D.
†
The top 3 multisource drugs within Medicare are included for each class of oral medications. For statins, there were only 3 multisource drugs, which are listed. For ACE inhibitors/ARBs, benazepril–amlodipine was the third most commonly dispensed multisource drug but was not included for comparison because only 535 prescriptions were dispensed within the VA.