The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has published its new Authorised Prescriber (AP) data dashboard, as figures revealed 10,530 Special Access Scheme Category B approvals were recorded in October.
The AP dashboard, held back from its August release due to technical problems, was initially affected by further formatting errors upon going live, though those issues have since been fixed.
Key figures from the dashboard show APs lodged 9,720 applications with the TGA in the nine months through to September — October data is not yet available — compared with 10,110 across the full 2021 calendar year and just 2,160 in 2020.
In 2020 there were only 175 active APs. That number grew to 636 in 2021 and reached 1,187 across the first nine months of 2022.
Close to 2,400 applications submitted this year have been for medicines with a CBD content of at least 98%, while 1,440 have been for products containing over 98% THC.
October's SAS-B approval count came in slightly above September's total of 10,400, making it the third highest monthly figure recorded so far this year.
Oil products accounted for 53% of approvals, while flower made up a 37% share.
Among male patients aged 18 to 44, the split was reversed, with flower comprising 49% of approvals and oil 41%.
Men across all age groups received nearly two thirds of all approvals, at 62%.
Consistent with prior months, chronic pain accounted for 45% of approvals, anxiety for 29%, sleep disorder for 7%, and PTSD for 3%.
A total of 940 medical practitioners wrote prescriptions during October, up from 925 in September. Of those, 45% were based in Queensland, 29% in Victoria, 22% in New South Wales, and 4% in Western Australia.
