Total Annual Economic Burden of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease in Steady State in Greece

Abstract

Sickle cell disease includes a group of congenital hemolytic anemias, all characterized by the predominance of Hb S (HBB: c.20A>T). The population movement due to economic migration or escape from conflict zones will further affect the health systems of countries by either increasing the number of patients or forcing countries to create care units for sickle cell disease patients. This will probably also increase the incidence of the disease in areas where their incidence and prevalence were previously low. In the present study, an attempt has been made to estimate the total annual cost of the treatment of sickle cell disease in Greece. This was the first attempt to calculate the total annual cost of treating sickle cell disease patients in a steady state. The annual cost of sickle cell disease was estimated to be €21,152,340.00 (US$25,219,300.41), without calculating the cost of hospitalization for severe complications. Since 2013, in Greece, a pharmaceutical expenditure limit (decreasing with the years) has been budgeted at €1,945,000,000.00 (US$2,318,965,150.00), annually. It is therefore calculated that approximately 1.0% of the budget allocated to pharmaceutical spending is used to treat patients with sickle cell disease.

Keywords:

• Economic burden
• Greece
• sickle cell disease

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was part of the postgraduate program that V. Tsolakidis attended at the medical school of Thessaloniki, in the department of clinical pharmacology. Part of the tuition fees (30.0%) has been covered by Novartis Company where he works.