Alarmed by the rising number of deaths due to sudden heart attacks, people in Gujarat are buying drugs related to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in large numbers.
While all the sudden deaths are not attributed to heart issues by experts, it has not deterred many young and not-so-young patients to get themselves checked and get onto preventive medicine regime, leading to the sales of such drugs grow by at least 20% in the state, says a recent report.
The data by Pharmarack, a healthcare management platform, also indicated that Gujarat recorded nearly double the growth in sales compared to Indian average of 11%.
The platform compared the data of pharmaceutical sales of October this year to October 2022. This year, the sale of drugs related to CVD clocked Rs 103 crore compared to Rs 86 crore in October 2022.
Persons in the age group 30 to 40 years account for a large chunk of new customers who have got prescriptions for CVD treatment or preventive measures, the report further says.
Some of the medicines that saw a spike in sales include statins, finerenone, and bempedoic acid among others. Consumption of anti-hypertensives has remained stable, indicated the report.
Due to factors ranging from stress to lifestyle, there has been a steady advance in both population-level prevalence and number of patients in the past few years.
The spike in sales of medicines can also be attributed to preventive steps initiated by the experts where the new patients might need to take medication to reduce risk of developing or advancing cardiovascular diseases.
Statins are often given to the patients to reduce LDL cholesterol or bad cholesterol. These are preventive medicines for those who are at borderline risk. They are often prescribed with bempedoic acid and ezetimibe to reduce dose of statin and effects such as muscle pain in some patients.
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