Objectives: Treatment of BOV places a high burden on healthcare resources such as hospitalizations. It was estimated that there were approximately 20,000 new cases of BOV in the Philippines every year. Vasoactive agents such as terlipressin, somatostatin, and sandostatin are widely used for the treatment of BOV. The objective of our analysis was to quantify the budget impact of using terlipressin for treating BOV patients from the Philippines health system perspective.

Methods: A budget impact model based on current clinical practice was developed to estimate the budget impact of introducing terlipressin to the Philippines from a public payer’s perspective. The comparators included terlipressin, somatostatin and sandostatin. Epidemiological inputs were collected from a targeted literature review. Current and future utilization share of treatments were based on internal marketing forecast. The unit cost of health services (e.g., drug costs, hospitalization, salvage surgeries, physician visits, etc.) and their utilization were determined by local cost databases and clinical experts in the Philippines. The analysis adopted a five-year time horizon.

Results: With a population of 110 million in the Philippines, increasing the utilization of terlipressin in patients with BOV from 5% in Year 1 to 7% in Year 5resulted in cost savings of between ₱3.06 million (approximately 61,271 USD) and ₱4.53 million (approximately 90,706 USD) from Year 1 to Year 5. This translated to a Per Member Per Year (PMPY) of -₱0.04 (approximately 0.00 USD) and a Per Member Per Month (PMPM) of ₱0.00 (approximately 0.00 USD) in Year 5. Cost savings were driven mainly by the savings in drug costs and hospitalizations.

Conclusions: Using terlipressin in treating BOV patients in the Philippines had a minimal budget impact within five years in the Philippines. It could be an affordable treatment option for BOV patients.