Cost of Biologics in the Treatment of Juvenile Idi

Authors: Femke H M Prince Lisette W A van SuijlekomSmit

Publish Date: 2013/04/21

Volume: 15, Issue: 4, Pages: 271-280

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Abstract

Biologics are a promising treatment option for juvenile idiopathic arthritis JIA but drug costs are very high compared to conventional treatment From a socioeconomic view the additional costs of new interventions should be weighed against their incremental health benefits compared to standard care Therefore we evaluated data on costeffectiveness of biologics in JIA We searched Medline Embase and The York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination database for relevant literature Current data show that biologics are reducing direct and indirect healthcare costs if one excludes the costs of the drug itself The costs of biologics are more than ten times as high as conventional drug treatment As a result of limited data no comparison on costeffectiveness between biologics could be performed Although data on longterm costeffectiveness of biologics are lacking the expectation is that they will be costeffective in the longterm The idea behind this is that biologic treatment should be administered to patients that without these drugs would incur high direct and indirect costs due to continuous severe disease resulting in irreversible disabilities In our opinion the best cost benefit could be gained if these patients receive biologic treatment introduced early in the disease This is in order to minimize irreversible damage to the joints and minimize need for longterm biologic therapy by early suppression of the disease To support these hypotheses future research is needed on longterm costeffectiveness of all biologics used in JIADr Prince has no conflicts of interest to declare Dr van SuijlekomSmit received grants from the Dutch Board of Health Insurances Dutch Arthritis Association Pfizer formerly Wyeth and Abbott received consulting fees review activities fees payment for lectures and travel expenses to meetings from Pfizer formerly Wyeth and received consultancy fees from Roche and Novartis and travel expenses to meetings from BristolMyers Squibb

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