Switching statins: Cost of simvastatin is overestimated

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7556.1512-a

BMJ 2006;332:1512 (24 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7556.1512-a

Letter

Switching statins

Cost of simvastatin is overestimated

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Although the savings identified by Moon and Boglelook impressive,¹ and the price of simvastatin may look cheap;the authors have overstated the cost of simvastatin to the NHSby a factor of 4, and the future cost, probably by a factorof 8 and maybe 40.

The market price for simvastatin 10 mg is 29p per pack, 20 mgis 39p/pack, and 40 mg is 96p/pack.² The difference with thetariff price (£1.81, £2.34, and £4.23³) ispharmacy profit. Profit on category M products helps fund pharmaceuticalservices. Increased prescribing of simvastatin will not resultin increased pharmacy profits as the price of this and othercategory M products is adjusted quarterly to maintain a predeterminedoverall level of profit. The real cost to the NHS hence is themarket cost, not the tariff price.

Simvastatin 40 mg has been in comparative short supply in the. . . [Full text of this article]

John S Ashcroft, general practitioner

Old Station Surgery, Ilkeston, Derbyshire DE7 8ES jsashcroft@nhs.net