Blood thinners
At a glance
- Medicare prescriptions, 2024
- 33,275,491
- Medicare drug cost
- $25.14B
- Average cost per prescription
- $755
- Clinicians who prescribed it
- 277,508
Where it is prescribed
What these drugs are
Anticoagulants (blood thinners) lower the risk of blood clots, for example in atrial fibrillation or after a deep vein thrombosis. They raise the risk of bleeding.
Who prescribes it
- Family Medicine 20.9%
- Internal Medicine 20.9%
- Cardiology 18.0%
- Nurse Practitioners 15.8%
- Interventional Cardiology 5.8%
- Physician Assistants 5.1%
- Cardiac Electrophysiology 3.4%
- Geriatric Medicine 1.9%
- Hematology & Oncology 1.8%
- Pharmacists 1.0%
- General Practice 0.9%
- Hospitalist 0.9%
Share of Medicare prescriptions written by each specialty.
Drugs in this group
| Drug | Prescriptions |
|---|---|
| Apixaban (Eliquis) | 22,680,817 |
| Rivaroxaban (Xarelto) | 5,814,081 |
| Warfarin Sodium (Jantoven) | 4,233,205 |
| Dabigatran Etexilate Mesylate (Dabigatran Etexilate, Pradaxa) | 545,152 |
| Edoxaban Tosylate (Savaysa) | 2,286 |
Drugs filled in fewer than 1,000 counties have no page of their own; their national totals are shown here.
Industry payments about this drug
Drug makers reported $2.4M in payments to clinicians that named this group of drugs in 2025 (meals, speaking, consulting and similar).
- Pfizer Inc. $1.8M
- E.r. Squibb & Sons, L.l.c. $494,989
- Daiichi Sankyo Inc. $75,819
- Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC $18,400
- Pbg Puerto Rico LLC $14,920
- Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc $2,019
- Celgene Corporation $528
- Janssen Biotech, Inc. $388
Source: CMS Open Payments, general payments (not research), program year 2025. A payment is not evidence of wrongdoing. Payments by doctor
Recalls and shortages
Not on the FDA drug shortage list.
5 recalls since 2020
- Jul 2026 · Ascend Laboratories, LLC · Class III
Failed impurity/degradation specification: an OOS result observed in Related substance test analysis w.r.t Impurity II, Impurity III and Total impurities for 12-month stability - Jun 2026 · Ascend Laboratories, LLC · Class III
Failed Impurities/Degradation Specifications: OOS result was observed during the related substance test analysis with respect to Impurity II, Impurity III and Total impurity testing for 12 Month Long-Term Stability. - Dec 2024 · Ascend Laboratories, LLC · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Presence of N-nitroso-Dabigatran impurity above recommended interim limit - Mar 2023 · Ascend Laboratories, LLC · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Detection of N-nitroso-dabigatran (NDAB) impurity levels above the Acceptable Daily Intake Limit. - Jan 2022 · Cardinal Healthcare · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Products were exposed to temperatures outside of the products labeled storage conditions.
Recalls usually affect specific lots from one maker, not every version of a drug. Class I is the most serious; most drug recalls are Class II. FDA recalls (opens in a new tab)
Industry-funded trials
Sources: CMS Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider and Drug (2024; prescriptions include refills, and CMS hides counts under 11 per prescriber); U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA (drug labels, NDC directory, enforcement reports, drug shortages); CMS Open Payments 2025; ClinicalTrials.gov. General information only, not medical advice; not yet reviewed by our medical reviewer.