A breakthrough analysis of multiple sclerosis (MS) costs highlights the rapidly escalating economic burden as the disease advances.
New therapies for multiple sclerosis require economic justification. Progress in controlling this disease therefore depends on understanding how medical costs evolve over time.
JEN Associates and Wyeth researchers conducted a novel computer analysis to sort MS patients by disease stage based on their Medicare payment records. This objective MS classification method led to a deeper understanding of MS medical costs. The results indicate the savings that Medicare could reap if treatment blocked MS’s usual steady advance.
Multiple sclerosis affects 350,000 Americans, one-third of who are Medicare beneficiaries. The disease is marked by increasing loss of coordination, muscle weakness and inability to carry on daily activities. The majority of MS patients have “relapsing-remitting” multiple sclerosis in which they experience periodic disease “exacerbations.” Over the years, though, MS can advance to the “progressive” stage, in which acute symptoms continuously worsen.
The study was coauthored by Daniel Gilden and Joanna Kubisiak of JEN Associates and Arthur Zbrozek, who was then at Wyeth Research. Mr. Gilden notes, “Medicare nondrug costs quadruple as patients pass from slowly advancing intermittent MS to the rapidly progressive stage. There are obvious cost advantages to drugs that keep patients in the intermittent state. Our study shows that classifying MS patients according to diagnostic stage is a feasible basis for modeling treatment economics.”
This will be discussed in an upcoming issue of Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and outcomes Research.
Value in Health publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 5,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.
Source: ISPOR