New and updated ATC codes
Posted in News
The annual revision of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code was released in December 2016 and the changes incorporated into the data the same month.
New codes were added for a number of drugs in the New Cancer Drugs Fund or on the National Tariff high-cost drugs list, including alirocumab, osimertinib, talimogene laherparepvec and venetoclax. A new ATC code for the combination of inhaled salbutamol and beclomethasone has also been added to the ATC index.
New fourth-level codes have been added for glucagon-like peptide analogues (for example exenatide) and sodium glucose co transporter 2 inhibitors (such as canagliflozin) with consequential changes to the drugs in these groups.
Similarly, new codes have been created for opioid analgesics in combination with other specialised analgesics, for example codeine and aspirin, dihydrocodeine and paracetamol.
There have also been some new Defined Daily Doses created, one significant change to a DDD and several minor changes. The significant change is for posaconazole from 0.8g to 0.3g – this will be rolled out to retrospective data so will no longer match existing physical copies of data.