Cholesterol drugs heavy going for PBS and health Obesity and cardiovascular disease is costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion in medication alone, according to the latest data from the taxpayer-funded Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The two most prescribed drugs Atorvastatin and Rosuvastatin are members of the drug class known as statins - used for lowering blood cholesterol - and are the number one burden on the subsidised pharmaceutical scheme. Atorvastatin cost $731 million, with the government contribution totalling $593 million, while Rosuvastatin cost $466 million with the government stumping up $359 million. Another version of the drug, Simvastatin, appeared 12th on the list and cost taxpayers $109 million. University of NSW professor of clinical pharmacology Ric Day said the figures were symptomatic of Australians' sedentary culture, rising obesity, and poor nutritional choices. "They get a pill to fix it up easy while not making any changes to their lives," Professor Day said. He said there was no doubt a lot of Australians had been prescribed statins they did not need as their total risk of heart disease was not high. "Statins are overprescribed for young people, if the only risk factor for cardiovascular disease is higher cholesterol you could argue statins are not the answer," he said. The National Prescribing Service found the use of lipid-lowering drugs such as statins had increased from 4.8 per cent of people aged 45 and over in 1995, to more than 30 per cent. And Australia has a high use of statins compared with the OECD. Professor Day said this showed it was likely low-risk people were being treated with the drugs. But professor of cardiology at the University of Sydney Ben Freedman said it was not surprising the statin was the most common medication in the country with more than 22 million prescriptions of the drug filled. "Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent disease in our community and will take the lives of about half the people who die," Professor Freedman said. They work ... statins have been shown to be very effective in reducing recurrent events in people with known vascular disease and preventing events in people when risk is high. Professor Freedman said the cost of statins would begin to decrease as the copyright ended and generic brands became available this year. You can never get your cholesterol down to the sort of levels you can get it down to with statins with diet and exercise alone. I agree with the sentiment that if people did more lifestyle changes there would probably be less heart disease to start with. The cost of the government Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme jumped 3.6 per cent to $9.1 billion for the year ending June 30, 2012, compared with $8.8 billion for the previous 12 months.