Abstract 899P
Background
This study aims to assess the pharmaco-economics of subcutaneous (SC) compared to intravenous (IV) rituximab in patients with NHL and CLL treated in a single institution in Saudi Arabia.
Methods
We reviewed the total number of patients with NHL and CLL who received rituximab either in IV or SC forms from 1/1/2019 till 31/12/2019 in King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The overall cost of loading IV rituximab followed by SC rituximab in subsequent doses was compared to a hypothetical model of whole course IV rituximab. Direct costs of the two forms of retuximab were checked in addition to costs of drug preparation kits, nursing administration utilities, services offered to the patients at the chemotherapy unit and staff working time, based on average drug preparation/ administration time (based on the whole bed occupation time).
Results
The average cost of one dose of IV rituximab was 1,660 USD (based on average BSA of 1.7), while the cost of one dose of SC rituximab was 1,712.5 USD. This is translated to a total cost of 1,045, 233 USD for IV followed by SC rituximab (IV/SC) compared to 1,024,220 USD for IV rituximab only (IV only) for the whole treatment duration. On average, each IV and SC rituximab dose take 20 and 2 minutes for preparation, respectively. This is translated to 85.6 and 205.6 hours of pharmacist working time for preparing IV/SC compared to IV only rituximab per year. On average, each dose of IV retuximab needed 5 hours- bed occupancy in the chemotherapy unit compared to 30 minutes for SC rituximab. This corresponds to 1285 hours for IV/SC rituximab compared to 3085 hours for IV only rituximab therapy per year. The overall cost of SC/IV retuximab per year (including drug / administration costs, staff working time) is 1,074,700 compared to 1,094,340 USD for IV-only rituximab.
Conclusions
SC rituximab is associated with overall comparable pharmaco-economic profile to that of the IV counterpart. However, SC rituximab is associated with a significant reduction in preparation and administration time which is expected to improve satisfaction and convenience of patients and health care providers.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.