ISPOR

On the 5-8 November 2011, the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) 14th annual European Congress took place at the Hotel Auditórium in Madrid. The IHE contributions consisted in moderating a plenary session and four poster presentations. 
    Under the chairmanship of Ulf Persson in-depth studies on differences and opportunities in pricing and market access were reviewed and debated during a plenary session.

Gunnel Ragnarson Tennvall presented two posters on psoriasis. One poster considered treatment patterns, treatment satisfaction, disease severity, and quality of life in patients with psoriasis in three Nordic countries (“Treatment patterns, treatment satisfaction, disease severity, and quality of life in patients with psoriasis in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden”). The study results were based on data from a patient survey and a retrospective chart review. Some of the conclusions were that psoriasis has large influence on health related quality of life, that many patients are not satisfied with their treatment and that potential gain in health could be obtained with more effective treatment for selected patients.
    The second poster on psoriasis analysed treatment patterns, cost and quality of life in patients with plaque psoriasis in Denmark (“Treatment patterns, cost and quality of life in patients with plaque psoriasis in Denmark”). This study concluded that indirect costs increased with disease severity and the highest indirect costs were found among patients treated with local topical agents. The direct costs increased with the use of biological and systemic drugs.

The other two IHE poster contributions, with Michael Willis as one of the authors, considered diabetes. One of the posters estimated the effect of weight reduction on long-term outcomes and associated direct medical costs for patients newly diagnosed with T2DM that are less than 50 years old in Sweden (“The economic impact of weight loss in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and younger than 50 in Sweden”). 
    The other poster on diabetes assessed the cost-effectiveness of intensifying therapy to achieve Swedish-specific treatment goals for HbA1c, SBP, and LDL cholesterol vs. usual care of patients newly diagnosed with T2DM and younger than 50 years (“The cost-effectiveness of getting to glucose, blood pressure, and lipid goals in patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and younger than fifty in Sweden”).