The selleck kinase inhibitor highest percentage of off-label prescribing occurred in infants and children mainly owing to dosage and age factors. This level is very high and specific initiatives need to be adopted to formalise evidence-based data into the product license. Off-label and unlicensed prescribing in paediatrics is a global phenomenon owing to a lack of adequate registration of paediatric drugs and formulations. Many studies have investigated the extent of off-label and/ or unlicensed prescribing in specific settings but none has

investigated the extent across inpatients, outpatients and emergency department patients. The current study aimed to investigate the extent of off-label and unlicensed prescribing in inpatients, outpatients and emergency department patients in Western Australia. Patient records from Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) were randomly selected from 145,550 patients during 2008. Data were collected from 1038 medical records including prescribing details for each drug prescribed. Drugs were classified

as off-label using an exclusivity hierarchical system based on age, indication, route of administration and dosage, based on these criteria registered with the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA)1 or MIMs.2 Drugs were classified according to the WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Code. Standard statistical tests were applied. Ethics approval was obtained from the PMH Ethics Committee Ipatasertib concentration (Audit 103QP – GEKO 1944) and Curtin Monoiodotyrosine University (PH-13-11). A total of 1037 patients were evaluated, of which 607 (58.5%) were male. The age ranged from new-born up to and including 18 years. Most records (403; 38.9%) were from the emergency department (36.6% outpatients; 24.5% inpatients). A total of 2654 prescriptions for 330 different drugs were prescribed to 699 patients (67.4%). The ATC categories with a majority

of off-label drugs (n = 295; 43.3%) were the nervous system and the alimentary tract (n = 139; 20.4%). The ATC categories with a majority of unlicensed drugs were systemic hormonal preparations excluding sex hormones (n = 22, 32.4%) and ophthalmic/ otological drugs (n = 13, 19.1%). Inpatients were found to be prescribed more off-label drugs than outpatients or emergency department patients (p < 0.0001). The highest percentage of off-label prescribing occurred in infants (28 days–23 months) and children (2–11 years) (31.7% and 35.9% respectively) and the highest percentage of unlicensed prescribing (7.2%) occurred in infants (28 days–23 months). The differences were significant (p < 0.0001). There were 28.3% of off-label and unlicensed medications prescribed across all three settings (25.7% off-label and 2.6% unlicensed). The most common reasons for off-label prescribing were dosage (47.4%) and age (43.2%).