FASS (drug catalog)
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A formulary is a list of pharmaceutical drugs, often decided upon by a group of people, for various reasons such as insurance coverage or use at a medical facility. Traditionally, a formulary contained a collection of formulas for the
compounding In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of a custom formulation of a medication to fit a unique need of a patient that cannot be met with commercially available products. This may be done for me ...
and testing of medication (a resource closer to what would be referred to as a pharmacopoeia today). Today, the main function of a prescription formulary is to specify particular medications that are approved to be prescribed at a particular
hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
, in a particular
health system Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
, or under a particular
health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
policy. The development of prescription formularies is based on evaluations of efficacy, safety, and
cost-effectiveness Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a form of economic analysis that compares the relative costs and outcomes (effects) of different courses of action. Cost-effectiveness analysis is distinct from cost–benefit analysis, which assigns a monetar ...
of drugs. Depending on the individual formulary, it may also contain additional clinical information, such as side effects, contraindications, and doses. By the turn of the millennium, 156 countries had national or provincial essential medicines lists and 135 countries had national treatment.


Australia

In Australia, where there is a public health care system, medications are subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and medications that are available under the PBS and the indications for which they can be obtained under said scheme can be found in at least two places, the PBS webpage and the Australian Medicines Handbook.


United States

In the US, where a system of quasi-private healthcare is in place, a formulary is a list of
prescription drug A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a pharmaceutical drug that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The rea ...
s available to enrollees, and a tiered formulary provides financial incentives for patients to select lower-cost drugs. For example, under a 3-tier formulary, the first tier typically includes generic drugs with the lowest cost sharing (e.g., 10% coinsurance), the second includes preferred brand-name drugs with higher cost sharing (e.g., 25%), and the third includes non-preferred brand-name drugs with the highest cost-sharing (e.g., 40%). When used appropriately, formularies can help manage drug costs imposed on the insurance policy. However, for drugs that are not on formulary, patients must pay a larger percentage of the cost of the drug, sometimes 100%. Formularies vary between drug plans and differ in the breadth of drugs covered and costs of co-pay and premiums. Most formularies cover at least one drug in each drug class, and encourage
generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...
substitution (also known as a preferred drug list). Formularies have shown to cause issues in hospitals when patients are discharged when not aligned with outpatient drug insurance plans.


United Kingdom

In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) provides publicly funded universal health care, financed by
national health insurance National health insurance (NHI), sometimes called statutory health insurance (SHI), is a system of health insurance that insures a national population against the costs of health care. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector ...
. Here, formularies exist to specify which drugs are available on the NHS. The two main reference sources providing this information are the '' British National Formulary'' (''BNF'') and the Drug Tariff. There is a section in the Drug Tariff, known unofficially as the " Blacklist", detailing medicines which are not to be prescribed under the NHS and must be paid for privately by the patient. Recommendations for additions to the NHS formulary are provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. In addition to this, local NHS hospital trusts and Primary Care ( General Practitioners) Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), produce their own lists of medicines deemed preferable for prescribing within their locality or organisation; such lists are usually a subset of the more comprehensive BNF. These formularies are not absolutely binding, and
physicians A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
may prescribe a non-formulary medicine if they consider it necessary and justifiable. Often, these local formularies are shared between a Primary Care Organisation (PCO) and hospitals within that PCO's jurisdiction, in order to facilitate the procedure of transferring a patient from primary care to secondary care, thus causing fewer "interfacing" issues in the process. As in the United States, the NHS actively encourages prescribing of generic drugs, in order to save more of the budget allocated to them by the Department of Health.


National formulary

A national formulary contains a list of medicines that are approved for prescription throughout the country, indicating which products are interchangeable. It includes key information on the composition, description, selection, prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines. Those drugs considered less suitable for prescribing are clearly identified. Examples of national formularies are: * ''
Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary The Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary (APF) is the national formulary used by pharmacists in Australia, compiled by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. New editions of the APF are released every few years, with the latest edition being the ...
'' (APF) * ''Österreichisches Arzneibuch'' (ÖAB), the Austrian national formulary * '' British National Formulary'' (BNF) and ''
British National Formulary for Children ''BNF for Children'' (''BNFC'') is the standard UK paediatric reference for prescribing and pharmacology. It contains a wide range of information and advice on prescribing for children - from newborn to adolescence. The entries are classified by ...
'' (BNFC) * ''
Farmacotherapeutisch Kompas The ''Farmacotherapeutisch Kompas'' (FK) contains a wide spectrum of information on prescribing and pharmacology, among others indications, side effects and costs of the prescription of all medication drugs available in the Netherlands. It was fir ...
'' (FK), the Dutch national formulary * ''Hrvatska Farmakopeja'', the Croatian national formulary * ''Japan National Health Insurance Drug Price List'' * ''Pharmaceutical Schedule'', New Zealand's publicly funded national formulary * ''United States National Formulary'', later bought out and merged with the United States Pharmacopeia (USP-NF) * ''Farmaceutiska Specialiteter i Sverige'' (FASS), the
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
national formulary. Usage of the database is free of charge and it has no promotional texts or advertising.FASS – the Swedish Medicines Information Engine
information booklet from The Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (LIF). Updated 2008
FASS has been developed by the Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (LIF) in close cooperation with Sweden's pharmaceutical industry, with additional assistance from the
Medical Products Agency The Medical Products Agency (MPA; sv, Läkemedelsverket) is the government agency in Sweden responsible for regulation and surveillance of the development, manufacturing and sale of medicinal drugs, medical devices and cosmetics. Its task is al ...
, the
Pharmaceutical Benefits Board A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...
and the
National Corporation of Pharmacies National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
. Information on interactions is derived from a joint development between the Departmentof Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Uppsala University and the Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (LIF).


See also

* *


References

{{Reflist


External links


A National Formulary for Canada, Department of Economics, University of Calgary, 2005

The Kazakhstan National Formulary
Pharmacy Pharmaceuticals policy Pharmacological classification systems Medical terminology Health care management Health care quality Health economics