Question: What most common drugs are found and made today?

Emma Crawford answered on 5 Nov 2018:

In 2017 the most commonly dispensed drug in England was Atorvastatin (https://www.statista.com/statistics/378445/prescription-cost-analysis-top-twenty-chemicals-by-items-in-england/). Atorvastatin is a statin used to lower cholesterol, and can also be taken to prevent heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
I found a nice article from the Guardian in 2011 that compared the top 5 prescription drugs at the time, compared to the top 5 prescription drugs in the 90’s: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/mar/15/top-five-prescriptions-then-now
It’s a pretty interesting read as it shows how different diseases have started to affect our population over time.
In 2011, they reported Simvastatin as the most common prescription medicine – this is another type of statin so it shows that the trend for most common type of prescription drugs has not changed much other the past 6 years but if you compare the 2017 graph to the drugs listed in the 2011 article you can see how the top 5 has changed in order slightly.