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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

Drug Repurposing Hypothesis Generation Using the "RE:fine Drugs" System
Published on: December 11, 2016
Prescription drugs that are not dispensed
Background:
The summary care record receives a copy of all electronic prescriptions and their dispensing by Norwegian pharmacies. Some electronic prescriptions expire without being dispensed, in whole or in part. The purpose of the study was to ascertain how many electronic prescriptions passed their expiry date without being dispensed, and what type of prescriptions these were.
Material And Method:
All electronic prescriptions and dispensations for the period 1 March 2016-1 March 2018 were extracted anonymously from the summary care record. The number of prescriptions that expired without being dispensed was added up and classified according to the drug prescribed. The percentage of uncollected prescriptions was calculated for each drug.
Results:
Of 47 771 233 registered electronic prescriptions in the period, 5 934 589 (12 %) expired without having been dispensed. The proportion of non-dispensed electronic prescriptions varied within the individual drug groups from 4 % for Z-hypnotics to 49 % for glucagon.
Interpretation:
The study indicates that several reasons exist for the non-dispensing of prescriptions.
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