February 2020
Contact: Kathy Hines
Email: kathy.hines@state.ma.us
This is the second study on prescription drug use and spending released from CHIA. For this analysis, CHIA used a subset of commercial pharmacy claims from the agency’s APCD to identify high volume and high cost drugs between 2015 and 2017. Key findings during this three-year data period include:
- Ten therapeutic classes of drugs, which include antivirals, antiasthmatics, cardiovascular, and psychotherapeutic drugs, accounted for over 70% of pharmacy expenditures.
- Anti-inflammatory TNF inhibiting agents, a class of drugs that includes Humira and Enbrel, accounted for the largest proportion of spending.
- The most frequently prescribed drug during the three year period was Lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor that treats high blood pressure and heart failure.