S4s dominate RUM
June 6, 2018
MORE than half of returned
medicines (55%) in the Return of
Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project
bins were prescription-only S4
medicines, according to an audit
published in NPS Medicinewise’s
Australian Prescriber this month.
Reflecting the market shares of
the most prescribed medicines, top
of the 2015-16 list was atorvastatin,
followed by its main competitor
rosuvastatin, then esomeprazole,
paracetamol, pantoprazole,
perindopril, metformin, pregablin,
fluticasone/salmeterol and in 10th
spot salbutamol.
Oxycodone came 15th, up from
the 2013 survey where it sat at 18th.
Just over a third (36%) of all
medicines returned in 2016 were
expired, compared with 51% in the
2013 audit, the report said.
“Approximately 10% of the
PBS-listed medicines were expired
and approximately 10% were
unopened,” it added, along with
the estimation that assuming the
sample was representative of the
total number of bins collected
annually, the estimated cost of
wasted medicines discarded via the
RUM Project is approximately $11.6
million a year.
The study suggested that the
RUM Project prevented more than
704 tonnes of medicines from
entering waterways or landfill.
Visit nps.org.au for access.
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