OBJECTIVES: Octreotide and Lanreotide are somatostatin analogs (SSA) currently recommended for the treatment of acromegaly and gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). The aim of this study is to assess the budget impact of adopting Lanreotide into the formulary for patients with acromegaly and GEP-NETs in Qatar.

METHODS: A budget impact model was developed to assess the financial impact of introducing Lanreotide for acromegaly and GEP-NET from a Qatari public hospital payer perspective, over a 5-year time horizon. The model’s data were sourced from local experts, medical databases, and the national drug list. Input parameters included drug acquisition costs, preparation and administration costs, medical resource utilization, and follow-up costs. The SSA eligible population over 5 years was estimated from reported prevalence and incidence rates. Scenario analyses were performed on select outputs to compare the annual budget impact of Lanreotide in comparison with Octreotide. One-way sensitivity analysis was conducted.

RESULTS: A total of 50 patients with acromegaly and GEP-NET (28 and 22 patients, respectively) are estimated to be eligible for SSA at the 5-year time point. The annualized per patient cost associated with Lanreotide and Octreotide was QAR 221,613 (€55,794.34) and QAR 238,760 (€60,111.35), respectively. The introduction of Lanreotide to the formulary would potentially lead to cumulative cost savings of QAR 4,286,750 (€1,079,252.48) over five years for 50 patients. The estimated 7% reduction in budget was mainly driven by the lower annual drug acquisition costs of Lanreotide compared with Octreotide and the lower resource utilization due to reduced nursing administration and monitoring time with the ready-to-use injections of Lanreotide.

CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that the adoption of Lanreotide over Octreotide for the treatment of acromegaly and GEP-NETs is expected to reduce the budget spending significantly to public hospital payers in Qatar. With the same budget spending, listing Lanreotide could potentially enable more patients to access SSA treatment.