title: Fixed-dose combination therapy in the United States, Britain and Israel.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fixed dose combination therapy varies among countries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To compare the list of fixed-dose combination therapies used in the USA, UK and Israel.
  
  
  METHODS
  The total list of drugs and FDC drugs were counted manually from a list of generic names. We also counted the number of drugs in four characteristic subgroups: cardiovascular, anti-infective, gastrointestinal, and dermatological. Data for drugs in the USA, UK and Israel were taken from the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR 1997), the British National Formulary (BNF March 1997) and the Monthly Ethical Drug Indexed Compilation (MEDIC July 1997) respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The global percentage of FDC drugs in the USA and UK was higher than in Israel (20%, 25% and 15% respectively). A similar trend was found in all subclasses of FDC drugs except for the anti-infective category in which the percentage of FDC drugs was low and similar in all countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The list of FDC drugs varies greatly between the USA, UK and Israel, reflecting the differences in the outcome of debate between the pharmaceutical companies and the regulatory authorities.
authors.affiliation: Recanati Center for Medicine and Research and Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Campus), Petah Tiqva, Israel.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goldschmid
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garty
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D004338:Drug Combinations; D016568:Drugs, Generic / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004338:Drug Combinations; D016568:Drugs, Generic; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs