Budget impact of a 10% ready-to-use intravenous immunoglobulin in the treatment of primary immunodeficiency in Belgium

Steven Simoens

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DOI: 10.4236/health.2009.13030                

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compute the budget impact of adopting Kiovig, a new ready-to-use 10% liquid immunoglobulin preparation, as a treatment for primary immunodeficiency from the perspective of the Belgian health care payer. The analysis compared the “world with Kiovig” to the “world without Kiovig” and calculated how a change in the mix of immunoglobulins used to treat primary immunodeficiency would impact drug spending during 2010-2014. Data on the number of patients, immunoglobulin market shares and drug unit costs were derived from the IMS Health hospital disease database and from Belgian sources. The number of Belgian patients suffering from primary immunodefi-ciency is expected to increase from 2,378 pa-tients in 2010 to 2,447 patients in 2014. The budget impact of adopting Kiovig is likely to be modest, raising the immunoglobulin drug bud- get for this patient population by 0.4%-1.3% per year. The budgetary increase originated from the higher price of Kiovig as compared with other products, although the impact of Kiovig was limited by its anticipated slow market penetra-tion. There is a need for more and better data on the Belgian immunoglobulin market.

Keywords

Immunoglobulins; Intravenous; Primary Immunodeficiency; Budget Impact; Belgium

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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