Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs now make up nearly a fifth of all medicines prescribed for heart and circulatory disease, according to new statistics. There are more than 52 million prescriptions for lipid-lowering drugs in England each year.
In 1981, lipid-lowering drugs only accounted for around 295,000 prescriptions – not even 1% of a total estimated 46 million prescriptions for cardiovascular medicines.