Abstract
Purpose :
Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.Lowering intraocular pressure is the only treatment proved to prevent visual field loss and topical medication is usually the first step,however,lack of adherence is a major problem. In non developed countries the lack of adherence is caused by the high cost of medication, since it represents a large percentage of the patient's income. The aim of this stuy is to compare the annual cost of glaucoma generic medications with brand medication in Mexico
Methods :
We performed a transversal,observational,comparative study. We included generic glaucoma medications that are available in Mexico and their equivalents in patent medicines.These include timolol0.5%,latanoprost0.005%,dorzolamide2% and timolol0.5%-dorzolamide2%.Ten bottles of each brand medication were analyzed to obtain the number of drops and volume in milliliters of each bottle.Each bottle of medication was placed at 45° and the drops were collected in a 10 ml glass pipette.We calculated the cost per day,the daily cost and the annual cost of each medication.The annual cost of dorzolamide2% and timolol0.5% were calculated either as fixed combination or separately.We obtained the cost in US dollars (USD) by multiplying the cost in Mexican pesos by the average exchange rate of the dollar in 2017.We compared the average milliliters,drops and annual cost of generic drugs against patent medicines,using a t-student test of independent samples
Results :
The average drop per milliliter of patent and generic timolol0.5% was 33.16±3.14 versus 21.83±2.71(p=0.001).The annual cost of timolol0.5% with patent and generic bottles was 33.59 USD and 53.67 USD(p = 0. 003).The annual cost of dorzolamide2% with patent and generic bottles was 288.85 USD and 85.86 USD (p = 0. 0165).The less expensive brand of timolol 0.5%-dorzolamide 2% was OPKO®with an annual cost of 85.84 USD.The annual cost of latanoprost0.005% with patent and generic was 305.84 USD and 110.77 USD(p=0. 005)
Conclusions :
Patent timolol0.5% is less expensive than generic because their bottles contain more drops per milliliter.Generic dorzolamide2% and timolol0.5%-dorzolamide2% bottles are less expensive than patent brands.Treatment with a fixed combination of timolol0.5%-dorzolamide2% is less expensive than prescribing them separately.Treatment with patent latanoprost0.005% is significantly more expensive than generic
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.