Inpharma 1540 - 3 Jun 2006

Parkinson’s progression equatesto increased drug costs

Drug treatment expenses for patients withParkinson’s disease rise as the disease progresses, andare affected by different management strategies, sayresearchers from Norway and Germany.

Their cost analysis examined data for 438 patients todetermine factors that influence drug costs and tocompare the average costs between patients inGermany and Norway.

The study found that in both countries, drug costs perday generally rose as the severity of the diseaseincreased, with German costs more than double forpatients with Hoehn & Yahr stage III, compared withthose staged with Hoehn & Yahr II.*

The per patient mean daily drug cost was €5.78 forthe German patients compared with €3.92 in theNorwegian group. The researchers note that the greaterdrug costs incurred in Germany "were primarily causedby higher expenses for patients with Hoehn & Yahrstage III and IV." The fact that the proportion of Germanpatients treated with two or more drugs was greaterthan Norwegian patients (81.8% vs 52.0%) and that theswitch to multidrug therapy occurred earlier in thedisease course may have played a role in the higher drugcost findings. Dopamine receptor agonists were given to55.2% of German patients and 29.6% of Norwegianpatients, contributing to 44% of the total drug costs inboth countries.* German costs were reported in 1999 values, and Norwegian costs in2001 values; only drugs prescribed for Parkinson’s disease wereincluded.

Vossius C, et al. Drug costs for patients with Parkinson’s disease in two differentEuropean countries. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 113: 228-232, No. 4, Apr2006 801039742

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Inpharma 3 Jun 2006 No. 15401173-8324/10/1540-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved