A descriptive analysis of changes in selected drug groups available to primary care physicians in Israel from 2000 to 2013

Several medical and economic factors affect the process of development and introduction of new drugs and the disappearance of various medical agents from the drug market. There are no data in the existing literature on quantitative and qualitative changes in the drug market. We assessed changes in the drug market in Israel over 14 years, focusing on drug groups that, in our subjective opinion, are mainly used in primary care medicine: pain medications, lipid lowering agents, drugs for diabetes, and antihypertensives. We assessed volume of drugs and changes and trends in terms of therapeutic efficacy and safety in selected drugs in each of the groups over the study time period. We used the Medic Compendium for the analyses. Medic contains a listing of drugs that are approved and available for use in Israel. It is updated every 2 months. In 2000, there were 253 available drugs in the study groups that contained 124 active agents. In contrast, in 2013, there were 278 available drugs that contained 130 active agents. Over the study years, there was an increase in the number of drugs that are effective, user friendly, and have a high safety profile. Our study provides the first data on quantitative and qualitative changes that have taken place in selected groups of drugs. Although the availability of the drugs in different countries is determined by multiple factors, we assumed that there are other countries with a similar situation in terms of their drug markets.