Posters

Comparison of the cost of topical therapy for glaucoma between generic and brand medicines in Mexico

Poster Details

First Author: R.Rivero Gomez MEXICO

Co Author(s):    U. Moreno-Paramo   J. Jimenez-Roman   E. Vidaurre-Mora   G. Lazcano-Gomez   N. Ramos-Betancourt        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Glaucoma is the second cause of irreversible legal blindness. The only intervention that reduces the progression of the disease is lowering the intraocular pressure. There are many kinds of ocular hypotensive therapy but they need good adherence to treatment. One of the principal causes of lack of adherence is the cost of treatment. We performed a transversal, observational, comparative, descriptive study to compare the cost between the generic medication and patent medication.

Setting:

Asociación para Evitar la Ceguera en México, I.A.P. Hospital “Dr. Luis Sánchez Bulnes

Methods:

We collected ten bottles of Latanoprost 0.005%, Timolol 5%, Dorzolamide 2% y Timolol 5% and Dorzolamide 2% of different pharmaceutical companies. Each bottle was under 45 degrees and we apply enough pressure to collect one drop, each drop was collected in a pipette of 15 ml with 0.1ml measures. Statistical Analysis: We calculated the average price of each bottle the price per drop, the daily cost, and the annual cost. All the prices were gathered in Mexican pesos and then converted to dollars. We compared the prices using Independent Samples T student test.

Results:

The average drop per milliliter of patent and generic timolol 0.5% was 33.16±3.14 versus 21.83±2.71(p=0.001).The annual cost of timolol 0.5% with patent and generic bottles was 33.59 USD and 53.67 USD(p = 0. 003).The annual cost of dorzolamide 2% with patent and generic bottles was 288.85 USD and 85.86 USD (p = 0. 0165).The less expensive brand of timolol 0.5%-dorzolamide 2% was OPKO® with an annual cost of 85.84 USD.The annual cost of latanoprost0.005% with patent and generic was 305.84 USD and 110.77 USD (p=0. 005).

Conclusions:

The patent bottle of Timolol 5% has more drops than the generic bottle and has less cost per drop than the generic bottle. The Dorzolamide 2% and the combination of Dorzolamide 2% and Timolol 5% bottles have less cost in generic than patent brand. The treatment with combination of Dorzolamide 2% and Timolol 5% is more expensive than the treatment with each medication in separate bottles. The treatment with patent bottle of latanoprost 0.005% is significantly more expensive then generic bottles.

Financial Disclosure:

None