PHARMACOECONOMIC STUDY ON DRUG WASTAGE

Cost effective analysis are commonly used to evaluate the potential costs and benefits of health care services. They are often conducted under the assumption of no drug wastage which does not reflect the real world scenario. Cancer is a major health problem responsible for 9% deaths all over the world. Anti-cancer drugs are costlier than any other category drugs due to which the compliance to treatment is questionable. Cancer drug wastage occurs when a parenteral drug within a single-use vial is not fully administered to a patient because of body-weight or body surface-area based dose calculation in cancer chemotherapy. We conducted a prospective observational study in chemotherapy OPD where patients undergo I.V chemotherapy treatment. Data was collected for a period of three months on the drugs and its wastage. Analysis was done to find out drugs causing an increment in cost due to wastage.Our analysis showed that wastage incremented cost of treatment by an average of 3% which accounts for Rs 2,39,237.12 per annum without any added benefit. The drug with maximum cost of wastage was found to be oxaliplatin.9.43% increment in cost was due to oxaliplatin alone, the reason was concluded to be limited vial size.