OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilization pattern of injectable antibiotic drugs in Islamic Republic of Iran using national aggregated data for ten years.

METHODS: Publicly available data analysis on the consumption of injectable form of antibiotic drugs within the period 2007-2017 from Iran Food and Drug Administration Drug Use databases (Amarnameh). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Of all antibiotics used in health facilities, the prescription as injectable form were 21.55% of numerical sales and 39.64% monetary sales in 2007 and 25.23%, 40.39% in 2017 respectively. The consumption of this dosage form of antibiotics in 2007 and 2017 was 141468 DDD per 1000 patient-days and 280504 DDD per 1000 patient-days, respectively. In the pattern of consumption of these drugs, we see an increase of 400% in monetary sales, which, in addition to real increase in consumption, is mainly due to Dollar currency rates increase after 2012. The increase in numerical consumption of these drugs was 59.6% in 10 years. Of all the prescribed injectable antibiotics, Penicillin G procaine was the most prescribed antibiotic in 2007. Meanwhile, in 2017, the highest reported consumption is related to cefepime.

CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the use of antibiotics in the last 10 years, as well as changing the pattern of consumption of these drugs to broad-spectrum drugs, reflects the irrational use of these drugs in Iran. It should be noted that irrational use of these drugs will have serious consequences and proper health policies should be adopted to correct this trend.