Prescribing medicine is part of your day-to-day job, but have you ever wondered which medicines are the most prescribed in Australia?
Peer reviewed journal, Australian Prescriber published lists of the top ten prescribed drugs by defined daily dose (DDD), by prescriptions written and by cost.
Cholesterol lowering medications were among the most commonly used prescription drugs in Australia in the year to July 2025.
Rosuvastatin came out number one in terms of prescriptions written and DDD, which shows how many people in every thousand Australians were taking the standard dose of a drug every day.
Top 10 PBS and RPBS drugs by DDD/1000 population/day
Both rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, which ranked second, are powerful statin drugs used to lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and reduce heart attack and stroke risk.
It is known that heart disease is prevalent in Australia and among the leading causes of death.
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More than 16 million prescriptions for rosuvastatin were made out and another 13 million were for atorvastatin.
Top 10 PBS and RPBS drugs by prescription counts
Antidepressant drugs were also among the top 10, mirroring the increasing prevalence of antidepressant use and the continued use of such medications over longer periods.
Escitalopram and sertraline, which are both common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors used for depression and anxiety, feature in the lists.
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Pembrolizumab, a monoclonal antibody given by intravenous infusion to treat a variety of cancers topped the list of the drugs that cost the most to the federal government.
Top 10 PBS and RPBS drugs by cost to government (does not include rebates)
Also on that list for the first time was the diabetes drug semaglutide, which has increasingly been prescribed for weight loss.
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More than 2.8million prescriptions worth more than $340m were written for the medication.
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