Patient preferences for Interferon-beta in Iran: A discrete choice experiment

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, progressive, and common disease affecting the central nervous system in young adults. Interferon-beta is one of the most widely used medicines to reduce the disease progression. Given the variety of drugs in this category, we aimed to identify the preferences of patients for IFN-β that play an important role in policymaking in this area. Discrete choice experiment method was used in the present study to identify and prioritize those attributes that are of interest to MS patients and increases the utility of the use of IFN-β in their treatment. Questionnaires were given to 358 patients in Isfahan-Iran, who were asked to choose between the two treatment choices in each scenario. The results of the logit model showed that the changes in the efficacy lead to the most changes in the patient utility. Changes in side effects and ease of injection have been placed in the next rankings. Considering the drug attributes considered more desirable by patients can lead to greater medication adherence and possibly better treatment outcomes. Also, pharmaceutical companies, the health ministry, the Food and Drug Administration, insurance organizations, and neurologists can benefit from this information in production and importation, policymaking, and prescription.

Adherence to self-administering interferon-β1a using RebiSmart® device in Mexican patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis

“…Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are available to decrease the frequency of relapses, to prevent neurologic disability and to limit the accumulation of focal white-matter lesions identifiable on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Nevertheless, there is no DMT that completely prevents or reverses the disease course [4].…”

A new approach to pharmaceutical pricing based on patients’ willingness to pay

“…Subsequently, 12 scenarios (24 paired profiles) were created using fractional factorial to establish WTP (see Table ). In each scenario, there were two choices created by changing the levels of the attributes .…”