OBJECTIVES: To describe the cost-saving benefits of operational waste generated in a care program by cohorts of babies on treatment with palivizumab in a Colombian pharmaceutical benefit manager.

METHODS: Descriptive observational study, conducted between January – December 2021, in patients in treatment with palivizumab. The drug comes in 100 mg or 50 mg vials with a cost of 732USD/vial and 359USD/vial respectively. The recommended dose is 15 mg/kg; thus, each vial would cover 6.5 kg of baby weight. We program all infants in treatment with palivizumab outpatient to a specific time and days by groups to receive the drug. A univariate analysis was performed, with summary measures of central tendency and relative and cumulative frequencies. R Core Team statistical package (2019) was used.

RESULTS: A total of 1045 patients attended the monthly application by cohorts of the palivizumab with a mean of 1.9 (SD 1.1) applications per patient. In total, patients would require 1915 vials, and using the cohort application strategy allowed it to take advantage of 38 vials (2%) of palivizumab. In total, 19 vials of palivizumab 100 mg and 19 vials of 50 mg were optimized, which corresponds to a total savings of 21684.08USD.

CONCLUSIONS: The strategy of application of palivizumab by cohorts of infants outpatient to a specific time and day to receive the drug has allowed for a decrease in the number of vials required and a significant reduction in the cost per infant.