Long term trends
This is an interactive tool for exploring the national Prescribing Cost Analysis (PCA) data. It shows annual data, going back to 1998, on all drugs dispensed in the community in England (note this makes it slightly different to the monthly dataset used elsewhere on OpenPrescribing). We have ensured that most drugs have a consistent classification over time, based on their current position in the latest BNF dictionary, so that time trends are not disrupted by drugs being reclassified, for example moving between Chapters. All figures are adjusted for England's population size and costs are corrected for inflation. Note - population figures for 2018 are based on projected figures and may be subject to change very slightly after June 2019.
You can view a video walkthrough of using the tool at the bottom of this page. For further information, see the FAQ.
Our paper describing this tool and the normalisation of the data is published in BMJ Open.
