Simvastatin

Drug Usage Statistics, United States, 2014 - 2023

Simvastatin Summary for 2023

Top drug rank	#22 ( 3)
Estimated number of prescriptions in the United States (2023)	24,585,762
Estimated number of patients in the United States (2023)	6,448,427

Average total drug cost (USD)
Per prescription	$15.17
Per day of therapy	$0.27/day
Average out-of-pocket cost (USD)
Per prescription	$3.58
Per day of therapy	$0.06/day

Total Prescriptions and Patients Per Year (2014 - 2023)

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
2014	4	1
2015	5	1
2016	8	3
2017	8	0
2018	10	2

Year	Rank	Change
2019	13	3
2020	13	0
2021	16	3
2022	19	3
2023	22	3

Drug Cost Over Time (2014 - 2023)

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 antihypertensive 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 (2023)

Dosage Form	Strength	% of Dispensed Products
Tablet/capsule	20 mg	48.1%
Tablet/capsule	40 mg	34.9%
Tablet/capsule	10 mg	13.6%
Other, unspecified, or misc.		3.4%

Distribution of Days Supplied (2023)

"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 (2023)
Atorvastatin	115,271,515
Rosuvastatin	42,103,430
Simvastatin (this drug)	24,585,762
Pravastatin	11,060,711
Lovastatin	4,392,660

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

Flolipid
Zocor

Generic Drug Synonyms and Salts

Simvastatin

FDA Approval Information

Established Pharmacologic Class (EPC):	HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitor
Initial FDA approval date:	12/23/1991
First FDA applicant:	Rx
First dosage form:	Tablet (oral)

Prescription data source: Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2014-2023. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Rockville, MD. ClinCalc DrugStats Database version 2025.08. 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 Apr 15, 2025

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