FOI-02485

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

‘Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 I’m requesting the following information on prescribing of inclisiran in England: 

The number of patients who have been prescribed inclisiran between September 2021 and October 2024 (or the latest month for which data are available), as the total number and broken down by month.’ 

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 6 January 2025.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. 

##Our response 

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached. 

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. 

##NHSBSA  

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for Pharmacy Contractors, Appliance Contractors, Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to Dispensing Doctors and Personal Administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.  

##Data Source: ePACT2  

Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on prescriptions and dispensed in the Community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration. It includes items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England. English prescribing that has been dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man is also included.  

The Data excludes:  

• Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification.   

• Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.  

• Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.  

##Time Period  

Monthly data from September 2021 – October 2024 (latest available). Please note there was no prescribing in September 2021.  

Aggregated data for the same time-period as above. 

##Organisation Data 

The data is for items prescribed in England, regardless of where dispensed, in the community.  

##Data 

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of products within BNF chemical substance of Inclisiran (BNF 0212000AM).  

##British National Formulary (BNF) Code 

The BNF Code is a 15-digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF, and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. Most of these items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).  

##Items 

Shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.  

##Patient 

Where patient figures have been reported they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities.  Please note, patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form and based on the criteria used for this analysis, patient information (NHS number) was only available for 95.53% of prescription items. 

The patient count figures are based on the number of unique NHS Numbers/patients we can confirm from the prescription image.  

Please note, with regards to the rows of data where the patient count is zero, this is because it has not been possible to link this back to a patient. For instance, if the NHS number is illegible on the script. 

The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided, as this may result in the double-counting of patients. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple months. 

##Data Queries 

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing, the data please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

##Reusing the data and copyright 

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented. 

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: 

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/  

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025” Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence. 

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information. 

Tags: Inclisiran, NHS Prescriptions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log