Consumption of osteoanabolic drugs and strontium ranelate in the treatment of osteoporosis in the Czech Republic in 2005-2011.

Anti-osteoporosis drugs with osteoanabolic (teriparatide, intact parathormone) and dual (strontium ranelate) mechanism of action are currently available for the treatment of postmenopausal, glucocorticoid induced or male osteoporosis in the Czech Republic (CZ). These expensive drugs are subjects of special prescribing limitations (2nd line treatments). The objective was to analyze trends in consumption of osteoanabolic and dual drugs in the treatment of osteoporosis since their introduction onto the market in CZ (2005-2011). The prescription-based database of the General Health insurance Company of the Czech Republic that covers approximately 60% of the Czech population was used as the data source. An insured person with a recorded prescription for teriparatide (TRPD), intact parathormone (iPTH) or strontium ranelate (SR) in the period of interest was defined as a patient; 271 (224), 77 (75) and 5930 (5545) patients (women) treated with TRPD, iPTH and SR in 2011, respectively, were identified. The median age of patients on TRPD and SR ranged from 71 to 74 years in 2006-2011. The number of patients treated with TRPD between 2009 and 2011 has been stable, while in iPTH the number increased 2.8 times in the same time period. The number of patients treated with SR has been steadily rising since its introduction in 2005. SR was prescribed most often by physicians specialized in internal medicine (42%) and rheumatology (25%). Male patients accounted for 6% of the SR consumers in 2011. The consumption of dual and osteoanabolic drugs has been rapidly increasing. Consumption rates in men (both absolute and relative) have been increasing but still remain relatively low.