Today Treato, a leading consumer healthcare website, revealed their first annual list of top statins. This ranking is part of a new series of drug rankings from the company. Statins are one of the most commonly used medications to treat high cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently announced their recommendation that adults as young as 40 without a previous heart attack should consider starting a low dose statin. Merck formulations took the top two spots with Vytorin, at the top of the brand list and lovastatin, the generic for Merck’s Mevacor, at the top of the generics list. Despite generics for statins being on the market for many years, consumers are still favoring brand name statins as many brand names scored higher in overall satisfaction than generics. Among popular statins, Bristol Myers Squibb’s Pravachol is the statin with the highest rate of posts discussing concerns, while lovastatin has the lowest rate.
Treato’s Top List Of Statins: (5 being the highest and 1 the lowest score)
Brand:
Drug Manufacture Price* Satisfaction (Overall) Score Helpfulness Score Concern Score
- Vytorin** Merck $233.53 (20 mg) 2.4 5 3.9
- Zocor Merck $216.57 (20 mg) 2.1 3.3 4
- Crestor AstraZeneca $236.14 (10 mg) 1.8 2.7 3.6
- Pravachol Bristol-Myers Squibb $170.51 (40 mg) 1.7 1.7 4.5
- Lipitor Pfizer $310.84 (20 mg) 1.6 1.3 3.6
Generic:
Drug Price* Satisfaction (Overall) Score Helpful Score Concern Score
- lovastatin $4.69 (20 mg) 2.3 2.9 3.3
- pravastatin $8.34 (40 mg) 2.2 3.7 4.1
- simvastatin $2.81 (20 mg) 1.6 1 4.1
- atorvastatin $8.99 (20 mg) 1.4 1.3 4
* The prices listed refer to a 30-day supply of the most common dosage before any insurance co-pays or drug discounts. The prices listed for prescription medications are provided by OneRx before any insurance co-pays or drug discounts.
** Vytorin is a combo pill of Zetia (ezetimibe) and Zocor (simvastatin)
“By ranking consumers’ experiences of their satisfaction with statins, we hope to empower individuals with information based on the experiences of other patients. We want patients to be more confident in their discussions with their doctor when picking a statin to meet their needs,” says Ido Hadari, CEO of Treato. “We anticipate that a year from now the rankings of treatments for high cholesterol will look very different with the recent FDA approvals of first-in-class PCSK9 inhibitors Praluent and Repatha, both of which are anticipated to be blockbusters.”
Treato’s Top List of Statin’s was created with data from OneRx, the authority on consumer drug pricing information. OneRx is a free prescription management app that helps insured and uninsured Americans save on medications. Additionally, the OneRx National Drug Index is the only prescription drug price index in the U.S. that measures the average price of prescription drugs, driven by the most commonly prescribed medications. OneRx is part of Truveris, the leading health IT company with a suite of solutions servicing the pharmacy value chain.
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Filed Under: Drug Discovery
