Situation analysis of off-label drug use in China

Abstract

To introduce current literature reporting situations of the off-label drug use(OLDU) by analyzing relevant literatures published in China, this study comprehensively focused on literatures about OLDU in China in seven Chinese and English databases, then extracted and analyzed the data by different literature types. A total of 667 papers were analyzed. The number of literatures about OLDU data analyzed in hospitals was 325, and the number of clinical studies relating to OLDU was 329, in which case series and case reports were the majority(69.91%). In addition, there were 13 expert consensuses of OLDU and another 56 studies about drug use based on the real-world data characteristics and influencing factors. The number of OLDU data studies has increased year by year. Based on the existing studies, there were more western medicine reports than traditional Chinese medicines, and OLDU types were mainly for over-dosage use. The literatures from OLDU data in hospital were mostly limited to one or several tertiary hospitals in a certain area, and the OLDU types were not uniform. Clinical studies were mainly clinical control trials and case series/reports, but with contradictory reporting results. There were fewer OLDU consensus, and the recommended classification was not uniform. The characteristics and analysis of influencing factors of drug using data in real-world focused on traditional Chinese medicine injections, and the results were not the same. In the future, we shall pay more attention to and strengthen reporting and analysis of OLDU, define study objectives, and unify the content and reporting standards, so as to promote the integrated utilization of OLDU data and reflect real situations in our country.