Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Crohn´s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis): Cost of Treatment in Serbia and the Implications

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the costs of treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in developed countries are well established, they remain largely unknown in countries with recent histories of socio-economic transition including Serbia.ObjectiveTo estimate the costs of treatment including the resources used by patients with IBD in Serbia from a societal perspective. This includes both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.MethodsThis cost-of-illness study was conducted to identify direct, indirect and out-of-pocket costs of treating patients with IBD in Serbia. Patients with IBD (n = 112) completed a semi-structured questionnaire with data concerning their utilisation of heath-care resources and illness-related expenditures. All costs were calculated in Republic of Serbia dinars (RSD) at a 1-year level (2014) and subsequently converted to Euros. Median values and ranges were reported to avoid potential distortions associated with mean costs.ResultsMedian total direct costs and total indirect costs per patient per year in patients with Crohn’s disease were 192,614.32RSD (€1602.97) and 28,014.00RSD (€233.13) and 142,267.15RSD (€1183.97) and 21,436.00RSD (€178.39), respectively, in patients with ulcerative colitis. In both groups, the greatest component of direct costs was hospitalisation.ConclusionsCosts of IBD in Serbia are lower than in more developed countries for two reasons. These include the fact that expensive biological therapy is currently under-utilised in Serbia and prices of health services are largely controlled by the State at a low level. The under-utilisation of biologicals may change with the advent of biosimilars at increasingly lower prices.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40258-016-0272-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Some stakeholders consider that the Proposal will increase access to medicines, particularly in those countries with low access. In a number of countries, the major reasons for differences in access and availability are issues of affordability, especially for new biological medicines [32,33]. The Proposal does not address prices of medicines and affordability as these are within the competence of each Member State.…”

Pricing of oral generic cancer medicines in 25 European countries; findings and implications

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