OBJECTIVES: From the Brazilian public health care system (SUS) perspective this study estimates the potential number of eligible patients with iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and the budgetary impact (BI) of pregnant and postpartum women (PPW).

METHODS: A descriptive observational study, was carried out with data obtained from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and data SUS platform, which were analyzed and statistically compared to survey the local Brazilian population and estimate its growth over 5 years. A BI analysis was performed considering different scenarios of increased utilization rates of FCM for patients with IDA (10%, 30%, 50%, 60% and 80%) over oral iron and low-dose intravenous iron (LD-IV) (90%, 70%, 50%, 40% and 20%). The time horizon was 5 years, between 2023 and 2027.

RESULTS: we estimated a total of 156,413 eligible patients with IDA, amongst them 91,263 pregnant women and65.150 PPW. The introduction of FCM in the treatment of anemia due to IDA in pregnant women generates a BI cost-saving of BRL 623,447,445 in the first year, BRL 621,519,641 in the fifth year and accumulated cost-saving of BRL 3,112,131,041. For the PPW, it generates a cost-saving of BRL 466,253,736 in the first year, a cost-saving of BRL 464,812,001in the fifth year and accumulate cost-saving of BRL 2,327,449,950 over the LD-IV.

CONCLUSIONS: 75% of the Brazilian population have access to SUS treatment, 91,263 pregnant women and 65,150 PPW will require iron supplementation. Intravenous iron, particularly FCM, has been shown to be cost saving in relation to LD-IV.