Fixed-dose combination therapy in the United States, Britain and Israel.
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.
Cohen
E
E
Recanati Center for Medicine and Research and Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Campus), Petah Tiqva, Israel.
Goldschmid
A
A
Garty
M
M
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
D004338:Drug Combinations; D016568:Drugs, Generic; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs