Historical Evolution and Provider Awareness of Inactive Ingredients in Oral Medications
Author(s)
Reker, Daniel; Blum, Steven M.; Wade, Peter; Steiger, Christoph Winfried Johannes; Traverso, Carlo Giovanni
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Purpose: A multitude of different versions of the same medication with different inactive ingredients are currently available. It has not been quantified how this has evolved historically. Furthermore, it is unknown whether healthcare professionals consider the inactive ingredient portion when prescribing medications to patients. Methods:
We used data mining to track the number of available formulations for the same medication over time and correlate the number of available versions in 2019 to the number of manufacturers, the years since first approval, and the number of prescriptions. A focused survey among healthcare professionals was conducted to query their consideration of the inactive ingredient portion of a medication when writing prescriptions. Results:
The number of available versions of a single medication have dramatically increased in the last 40 years. The number of available, different versions of medications are largely determined by the number of manufacturers producing this medication. Healthcare providers commonly do not consider the inactive ingredient portion when prescribing a medication. Conclusions: A multitude of available versions of the same medications provides a potentially under-recognized opportunity to prescribe the most suitable formulation to a patient as a step towards personalized medicine and mitigate potential adverse events from inactive ingredients.
Date issued
2020-10Department
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MITJournal
Pharmaceutical Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Reker, Daniel et al. "Historical Evolution and Provider Awareness of Inactive Ingredients in Oral Medications." Pharmaceutical Research 37, 12 (October 2020): 234 © 2020 Springer Science Business Media
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0724-8741
1573-904X