Top 25 Psychiatric Medication Prescriptions for 2013

These are the top 25 psychiatric medications by number of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2013, according to IMS Health, a global information and technology services company. I’ve also provided their 2011, 2009, and 2005 rankings.

To put the percent changes below into perspective, the U.S. total population rose approximately 1.5 percent from 2011 to 2013. That suggests that anything above a 1.5 percent change was driven by other factors — more people seeking treatment, more awareness and acceptance of seeking treatment for a mental illness, more pharmaceutical advertising and marketing, or some other factor.

GSK invites private equity to bid for older drugs worth up to $12.6B

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals company, has approached potential buyers of brands including the ulcer remedy Zantac and Seroxat, a well-known antidepressant.

Sky News has learnt that GSK has invited a small number of private equity firms, including Advent International, Blackstone and KKR, to consider making offers for some or all of the roughly 50 medicines in its Established Products Portfolio.

Based on a frequently used valuation multiple of two times' annual sales, the assets could be worth as much as £7.5bn in total, according to one source.

It is unclear how interested the private equity firms are in pursuing any deal with GSK.