OBJECTIVES: Since 25% of the Brazilian population has access to the supplementary health care system (SHS), this study aims to calculates de potential number of patients with iron deficiency (ID), iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and budgetary impact (BI) of the largest affected population.

METHODS: A observational study, was carried out with data obtained on the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and SHS data 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%, 70% and 90%) over oral iron and low-dose intravenous iron (LD-IV). The time horizon was 5 years, extrapolated from 2023 to 2027.

RESULTS: 158,695 total eligible patients with IDA were estimated: (51,363) pregnancies; (36,075) postpartum women (PPW); (17,224) inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); (17,958) heart failure (HF); (36,075) bariatric surgery (BS). FCM in the treatment of anemia due to IDA in pregnant women, in the first year, generates a BI of BRL 32,974,372, in the fifth year BRL 129,625,721 and over the 5-year period of BRL 406,645,863. For the PPW, it generates a BI of BRL 23,539,558 in the first year, BRL 94,514,217 in the fifth year and over the 5-year period of BRL 298,213,302 over oral iron. In turn, FCM in pregnant women generates a cost-saving of BRL 350.814.315 in the first year, BRL 349,729,539 in the fifth year and accumulated cost-saving of BRL 1,751,198,323. For the PPW, it generates a saving of BRL 262,361,304.98 in the first year, a cost-saving of BRL 261,550,040 in the fifth year and accumulate cost-saving of BRL 1,309,657,722 over the LD-IV.

CONCLUSIONS: Intravenous iron supplementation, particularly FCM, has been shown to be cost saving in relation to LD-IV for pregnant and PPW.