30 July 2010
The cost of treating diabetes in England has risen by almost £200m or 40% over the past five years, according to a report published by the NHS Information Centre.
Prescribing for diabetes in England: 2004/05 to 2009/10 examined the cost and number of drugs prescribed to treat diabetes in England between 2004 and 2010. The study showed that, 35.5 million prescription items were dispensed to treat diabetes in 2009/10, at a cost of £650m, compared with 24.8 million items costing £458.6m in 2004/05.
The prevalence of diabetes grew from 3.3% in 2004/05 to 4.1% in 2008/09 the report said. According to the NHS Information Centre, 2.2 million people in England now have diabetes.
Tim Straughan, NHS Information Centre chief executive, said: ‘Items being dispensed to treat diabetes have increased markedly and the total net ingredient cost to the NHS of those items has increased by almost £200m million since 2004/05.
‘The relatively high cost of some of the newer drugs used to treat diabetes is partly why the net ingredient cost bill has risen by 42% in five years.’
The charity Diabetes UK estimates that by 2025 more than 4 million people will have diabetes in the UK. Most of these cases will be Type 2 diabetes, which usually develops later in life, due to the ageing population and rapidly rising numbers of overweight and obese people.
Simon O’Neill, director of care, information and advocacy at Diabetes UK, said: ‘This large rise in cost of diabetes drug prescriptions and costs appears to be equally due to the far greater population of people with diabetes and to the wider prescribing of newer and more expensive therapies.’
