A pharmacoeconomic evaluation of piperacillin/tazobactam versus meropenem in the treatment of adult febrile neutropenia

Summary

A study involving 80 patients has established the safety and efficacy of piperacillin/tazobactam (PT) versus meropenem (ME) in the treatment of febrile neutropenia. The study reported here assessed 78 of 80 patients and has shown that the total antimicrobial costs of the two study arms were very similar, except for the acquisition costs of the two study drugs and the antimicrobial prescription costs in the post-study period. The total antimicrobial costs for the PT and ME arms for the prestudy, study and post-study periods, respectively, were: PT £2,052.22/ME £1,140.49, PT £28,726.57/ME £49,954.80 and PT £10,863.45/ME £3,542.27. A detailed review of these post-study antimicrobial prescriptions demonstrated that cost differences lay in the prescription of antibacterial antimicrobials. This post-study difference lay in the additional prescription of 145.15 defined daily doses of antibacterial antimicrobials in the PT arm and were ascribed, in the main, to teicoplanin, vancomycin, imipenem, metronidazole and ciprofloxacin. Forty-three percent of the total post-study antibacterial cost was due to the use of imipenem in eight patients in the PT arm.

Key words: :

• pharmaco economics
• piperacillin/tazobactam
• meropenem
• neutropenia
• monotherapy