Four of the top five most commonly prescribed drugs in England are used to treat cardiovascular disease, a new report from The NHS Information Centre has shown.

Simvastatin, aspirin, ramipril and bendroflumethiazide accounted for 12.9 per cent (109.3 million prescription items) of all items dispensed in primary care in 2009, but only 1.9 per cent (£160.3 million) of the total net ingredient cost.

The most commonly prescribed drug of the four was Simvastatin; in 2009 37.3 million prescription items of the drug were dispensed at a total net ingredient cost of £66.8 million.

Levothyroxine, third in the top five, is used in the treatment of hypothyroidism.

Tables of leading drugs for numbers and cost at chemical level are included for the first time in the report Prescriptions Dispensed in the Community; England, Statistics for 1999 to 2009, which also shows that in 2009:

• 886.0 million prescription items were dispensed, a 5.2 per cent (43.5 million item) increase on the previous year and a 67.2 per cent (356.2 million item) increase on 1999.

• The total net ingredient cost of all prescription items dispensed was £8,539.4 million, a 2.6 per cent (£213.9 million) increase on the previous year and a 61.4 per cent (£3,248.2 million) increase on 1999.

• The average net ingredient cost per prescription item was £9.64, compared to £9.88 in 2008 and £9.99 in 1999.

• On average 17.1 prescription items were dispensed per head of the population, compared to 16.4 in 2008 and 10.8 in 1999.

• 66.1 per cent of all prescription items were dispensed generically, representing 28.3 per cent of the total net ingredient cost. This compares to 65.0 per cent of all items in 2008 (26.2 per cent of the total net ingredient cost) and 48.3 per cent of all items in 1999 (18.2 per cent of the total net ingredient cost).

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “Prescribing in England accounted for around £8.5billon in 2009 in terms of net ingredient cost, a substantial slice of the NHS budget.  This report offers valuable information about the ingredients of that slice, in terms of the type of drugs we are prescribed and how much they cost.

“The treatment of cardiovascular disease dominates the top of the table in terms of the most dispensed prescription items within primary care, with four of the five most prescribed drugs used to help treat the disease.

“However it is interesting to note that while these four drugs account for almost 13 per cent of all prescription items dispensed in England, they represent just under two per cent of the total net ingredient cost.”