FOI-02632

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

1. For the (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024 calendar year please state how many prescriptions were issued for naltrexone? Please break these prescriptions down into age groups for the people they were prescribed to in the following age brackets (i) 0-9, (ii) 10-19, (iii) 20-29, (iv) 30-39, (v) 40-49, (vi) 50-59, (vii) 60-69, (viii) 70-79, (ix) 80-89 and (x) 90 and above, and also by the sex of the patient.
 
2. In relation to the drugs prescribed in 2024 could you please state how many naltrexone prescriptions there were, and the cost was for these prescriptions?

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 3 March 2025. 

We requested clarification with the below on 7 March 2025:

1.	Can we confirm that you want data of all products held under the chemical substance level of Naltrexone hydrochloride (BNF 0410030E0) which is for Opioid Dependence. Just to confirm we will be aggregating at the chemical substance level? 
 
2.	For the cost of the prescriptions in 2024 we will supply the NIC (Net Ingredient Cost (£)). 
 
3.	Can we confirm the geography you wish to use - For 02521 we used prescribed in England regardless of where dispensed. Do you want the same here or prescribed and dispensed in England?

You responded to this on the 7 March 2025:

1.	Yes that is fine.

2.	Yes that is fine.

3.	Yes that is fine, prescribed in England regardless of where dispensed.

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 and notes explaining it is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

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. 

(Please note- for this particular dataset- data has been provided for prescriptions dispensed by English pharmacy contractors and dispensing doctors only, please refer to 'Organisation Data' for more information). 

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

January 2022-December 2024. Data is aggregated by calendar year.
 
Organisation Data

The dataset includes items that have been prescribed in England and dispensed in the community.

Data

The dataset includes the number of items prescribed of the chemical substance Naltrexone Hydrochloride (0410030E0). Data is shown by patient age band and gender, where known. For 2024 only, Net Ingredient Cost (£) is also included within the data.
 
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. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23). 
 
Patient Information

Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA Information Services data warehouse at the time that the data was extracted. This uses information from either the most recent Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) message or from the last time that NHSBSA received data about the patient's gender from NHS Personal Demographics Service.    

Gender is either: Male, Female, Not Known (where no information is held) or Indeterminate (where information is held which does not confirm either Male or Female).

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing.  Results show results for all patients aged between 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90-99, and for those patients where the age is unknown. Please note there were no patients with an age captured above the 90-99 age band.
  
Items

Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form, not the quantity prescribed.

Net Ingredient Cost (£)

Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Community Pharmacy England the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02632 

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

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: “ePACT2, 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: NHS Prescription Services
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log