BACKGROUND

Hepatoprotective medicines are widely used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis and liver injury in Asia countries such as China and Japan.

OBJECTIVES

: To assess the hepatoprotective medicines (HPMs) use in Japan, the study evaluated the real-world situation of prescription patterns and the trends of the market share of HPMs in Japan.

METHODS

: Data of HPMs prescriptions between January 2005 and April 2019 were obtained from the health insurance claims database by JMDC Inc. Characteristics of patients and hospitals and the market share of each chemical category and product of HPMs were collected. The prescription patterns of HPMs were analyzed.

RESULTS

: Of the 330,346 patients included in the study, 1.9% of HPMs users had the diagnosis of liver injury at the time of HPMs initiation. Clinics prescribed 86% of the total HPMs prescriptions and 60% of the prescriptions were from the department of internal medicine. The most common comorbidities were hypertension, chronic hepatitis, hyperlipidemia, allergic rhinitis, and diabetes. Approximately 80% of the HPMs market was taken by ursodeoxycholic acid and glycyrrhizin products, with the market share of ursodeoxycholic acid products increasing and glycyrrhizin products decreasing meanwhile. One ursodeoxycholic acid product dominated half of the market at the peak year but was replaced by the other 2 ursodeoxycholic acid products from other manufactures.

CONCLUSIONS

: HPMs were prescribed mostly for outpatients and their prevention of liver injure. The average cost and usage of HPMs had been decreasing between 2005 and 2019. The dominant HPMs products were ursodeoxycholic acid and glycyrrhizin, with the latter one replaced by ursodeoxycholic acid products.