Diclofenac

Drug Usage Statistics, United States, 2013 - 2022

Diclofenac Summary for 2022

Top drug rank	#51 ( 10)
Estimated number of prescriptions in the United States (2022)	12,480,262
Estimated number of patients in the United States (2022)	4,295,892

Average total drug cost (USD)
Per prescription	$48.84
Per day of therapy	$2.44/day
Average out-of-pocket cost (USD)
Per prescription	$7.00
Per day of therapy	$0.29/day

Total Prescriptions and Patients Per Year (2013 - 2022)

Rank of Top Drugs Over Time

"Rank" refers to the frequency that a given medication is prescribed within a calendar year compared to all other medications. A rank of "4" would indicate that the medication was the fourth most commonly prescribed medication.

Year	Rank	Change
2013	73	7
2014	84	11
2015	84	0
2016	80	4
2017	101	21

Year	Rank	Change
2018	81	20
2019	74	7
2020	72	2
2021	61	11
2022	51	10

Drug Cost Over Time (2013 - 2022)

Cost Per Prescription Fill: Average cost per filled prescription regardless of how many days of therapy the prescription is filled for (e.g. 10 days, 30 days, 90 days, etc.)
Cost per Day of Therapy: The average cost per prescription fill divided by the days of therapy. For example, a 10-day antibiotic course costing $30 would be $3 per day. Similarly, a 30-day supply of an oral antihypetensive costing $30 would be $1 per day.

Total cost: The average total cost of the medication including the out-of-pocket cost (see below) plus the amount paid by other parties (Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, Veterans Administration, TRICARE, other state/federal sources, Worker's compensation, and other miscellaneous sources)
Out-of-pocket cost: The average payment made by the patient which may include deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, or the cash price paid without insurance coverage.

Cost Per Prescription Fill (USD)

Cost Per Day of Therapy (USD/day)

Distribution of Dispensed Dosage Forms (2022)

Dosage Form	Strength	% of Dispensed Products
Gel	1%	43.6%
Tablet/capsule	75 mg	36.6%
Tablet/capsule	50 mg	16.2%
Other, unspecified, or misc.		3.6%

Distribution of Days Supplied (2022)

"Days supply" is defined as the number of days that a prescription should last. For example, a prescription of 60 tablets that is taken twice daily has a day supply of 30 days.

Related Drugs

Drug Name	Total Prescriptions (2022)
Meloxicam	18,859,721
Ibuprofen	17,493,911
Aspirin	16,981,811
Diclofenac (this drug)	12,480,263
Naproxen	7,381,940
Celecoxib	7,023,512
Ketorolac	1,681,242
Nabumetone	1,463,756
Indomethacin	1,097,589
Sulindac	260,923
Etodolac	257,226
Diclofenac; Misoprostol	25,434
Ketoprofen	15,834
Oxaprozin	11,605
Piroxicam	4,972

Therapeutic Classes

Drug Synonyms

Drug synonyms are used during the sanitation and standardization process of "cleaning" the original data source (MEPS). Occassionally, brand names may be listed below that are no longer on the market or are very infrequently used.

Brand Name Synonyms

Zorvolex
Dyloject
Pennsaid
Solaraze
Voltaren
Voltaren Arthritis Pain
Voltaren-XR
Cambia
Cataflam
Zipsor
Flector
Licart

Generic Drug Synonyms and Salts

Diclofenac Epolamine
Diclofenac Potassium
Diclofenac Sodium
Diclofenac

FDA Approval Information

Established Pharmacologic Class (EPC):	Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug
Initial FDA approval date:	7/28/1988
First FDA applicant:	Discn
First dosage form:	Tablet, Delayed Release (oral)

Prescription data source: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2013-2022. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Rockville, MD. ClinCalc DrugStats Database version 2024.08. Read more about the ClinCalc DrugStats database.

All ClinCalc DrugStats figures and graphs on this page are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Updated Sep 12, 2021

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