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ISSUE 6 DECEMBER
Article

Top 10 Drugs

* The defined daily dose (DDD)/thousand population/day is a more useful measure of drug utilisation than prescription counts. It shows how many people, in every thousand Australians, are taking the standard dose of a drug every day.
† Based on date of supply
‡ PBS Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, RPBS Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
§ Combination drugs do not have a DDD allocated

Source: Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee (DUSC) Drug Utilisation Database, as at 11 October 2007.
© Commonwealth of Australia.

NPS RADAR December 2007

Strontium ranelate: The PBS listing for the osteoporosis drug strontium ranelate has been extended to allow treatment of postmenopausal women without an existing fracture and a bone mineral density T-score ≤ -3.0 (primary prevention). The latest issue of NPS RADAR describes the place in therapy of strontium relative to other anti-resorptive agents.

It also contains information on:

  • the listing of the anticonvulsant drug topiramate as an alternative treatment for migraine prevention, for adults unable to tolerate beta blockers or pizotifen
  • updated safety information for the glitazones - rosiglitazone and pioglitazone.

See the complete reviews at www.npsradar.org.au