The Economic Burden of Biological Drugs in Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment.

OBJECTIVES: This article aimed to count and compare treatment's direct (only biological drugs) and indirect (loss of productivity) costs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis from 2019 to 2021. METHODS: The friction cost approach was used to establish indirect costs. Elasticity factor values and friction period for the Slovak Republic from 2019 to 2021 were determined. Direct drug costs were calculated based on average prices from 2019 to 2021 and the number of dispensed medication packages. RESULTS: The average productivity loss reached €2984.54 in 2019, €3338.46 in 2020, and €3154.01 in 2021. Total indirect costs include productivity loss and sick pay, and from 2019 to 2021 came the values of €8.4 million, €10.1 million, and €8.1 million, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Indirect costs were almost 2.5 to 3 times lower than the biological and targeted treatment costs.

The Checklist for Standard Methodological Requirements and Reporting of Economic Evaluation of Medicines in Slovakia.

OBJECTIVES: We have developed a scientifically well-grounded, methodological, and reporting checklist for economic evaluation (EE) of medicines in the Slovak health technology assessment process, which serves as a supplement to the Slovak pharmacoeconomic guidelines. METHODS: The checklist was developed using an iterative process in which items were generated and gradually added to the baseline checklist based on shortcomings identified in an analysis of Slovak EEs, using relevant published checklists, and Slovak, as well as international, methodological guidance that was identified in the systematic literature review. The selection of checklist recommendations, their clarity, and relevance to the Slovak setting were validated in the online survey. RESULTS: From the sample of 151 price and reimbursement submissions published between January 2018 and July 2021, almost half of them (n = 73) received at least 1 request from the Ministry of Healthcare to justify or modify the methodology used in the EE; and in 18 proceedings, a negative opinion was issued because of shortcomings identified in the EE. The 25-items preliminary checklist, resulting from an iterative working process, has been validated in an online survey conducted among members of ISPOR Chapter Slovakia. After incorporating relevant comments, the final proposal for the Slovak checklist consists of 55 recommendations. CONCLUSIONS: The research represented the first attempt to create a Slovak EE checklist, which serves as a part of ISPOR Slovakia pharmacoeconomic guidelines. Implementation of the checklist allows checking whether EE meets legislative and methodological requirements and thus helps in improving the appropriateness and standardization of EEs in Slovakia.

Contribution to the concept of polypharmacy II. Prescription and use of medicines.

The study defines the basic terminological structure associated with the concepts of prescribing and medication use in relation to polypharmacy. Correctly naming the current prescription or use of a medication by a particular patient allows for the selection of an appropriate change to minimize the medication burden. The aim remains to maintain the desired therapeutic outcomes with an improved quality of life.

Contribution to the concept of polypharmacy I. Etymological notes and characteristics.

The contribution captures three basic concepts of the term polypharmacy. The analysis of four bibliographic databases demonstrates the importance of the correct and uniform use of terminology. It also approximates the most common numerical expression of the level of polypharmacy and the most common extended terms of polypharmacy.

Friction cost approach methodology in pharmacoeconomic analyses.

The use of a societal perspective in pharmacoeconomic analyses is a widely discussed topic. One of the fundamental problems of using the social perspective is the inconsistency of indirect costs calculation. We searched published articles on the use and differences of Human capital approach (HCA) and Friction cost approach (FCA) methods using the Web of Science database using keywords. We analyzed the information obtained from relevant publications. We obtained an overview of recommendations for the use of a social perspective in the world. We summarized and highlighted the necessary information about the differences between the FCA and HCA procedures. We have identified the key variables used in the FCA method when evaluating productivity cost, and we have proposed a procedure for obtaining them. We recommend creating a uniform methodology that could increase the comparison of individual analyses from different countries and contribute to data transferability.