The NHS is wasting millions of pounds on unnecessarily expensive prescription drugs, according to new data research.

Doctors in some parts of England are over-prescribing branded drugs in many cases where far cheaper generic equivalents are available, the research by a coalition of organisations found. Just two popularly-used branded drugs cost the NHS £27 million a month in unnecessary spending, they discovered. This amounts to over £300 million a year.

The research was conducted by health technology firm Open Health Care UK, data start-up business Mastodon C, and Ben Goldacre, a doctor and science campaigner, operating collectively as Prescribing Analytics. Read more