OBJECTIVES:

The increasing prevalence of retinal conditions have led to concerns regarding the current and future resource burden on retinal medical cares.

The objective of this model was to describe the positive economic and organisational impact of an innovative treatment with extended durability for retinal diseases reducing the annual frequency of intravitreal injections in France.

METHODS:

A budget impact was developed, included competitors were ranibizumab, aflibercept and bevacizumab. Model inputs included competitor market shares (estimated using open data on volume sold in 2020), annual frequency of injections (estimated from pivotal trials) and injection costs estimated by summing up all official 2020 medical services tariffs recorded for intravitreal injections. Drug costs were not reported to only capture economic impact induced by the reduction of injection number. Organisational impact was captured through the reduction of injection frequency and the number of additional patients that could be treated with saved injections. Innovative treatment market shares hypotheses went from 10 to 50%, and the frequency reduction needed to achieve at least a comparable efficacy to competitors was set to 25%.

RESULTS:

Total cost per injection was €163.8, considering a null fixed price per pre-filled syringe/ vial. Innovative treatment market shares set to 50%, and a reduction of the annual number of injections by 25%, corresponding to 155K saved injections per year, generates 12% less expenditure per year and per patient for the treatment of their retinal disease. Under these same assumptions, the number of additional patients who can be treated with the saved injections is equal to 48,200, i.e. 13.4% of the population affected by wet age-related macular degeneration or diabetic macular edema in France in 2018.

CONCLUSIONS:

Emerging therapies associated with extended durability of effects and reduced resource use can lessen the burden of the disease by addressing healthcare system capacity issues and by controlling spending.