engleski

Price Dynamics of Hepatitis C Virus Therapies in Croatia

OBJECTIVES: To investigate and explain changes of drug prices for hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments on the Croatian market. METHODS: The study is a retrospective analysis, conducted using publicly available pricing lists from the Croatian National Health Insurance Fund. The encompassed period is from November 2012 to July 2016. RESULTS: Pegylated interferon alpha- 2a (pegIFN) maintained a constant price for a longer period of time due to the lack of direct competition. Boceprevir (BOC) and telaprevir (TPV) were able to maintain a constant price since their entry on the market up until simeprevir (SIM) entered the EU5 (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain) market. Consequently, prices of TPV and BOC dropped (6% and 11%, respectively) remaining at that level even after SIM entered the Croatian market. The market entry of sofosbuvir (SOF) and ombitasvir, paritaprevir, ritonavir, and dasabuvir (OBV/PTV/ r/DSV) combination therapy was followed by a significant SIM’s price reduction (19%) and the ultimate withdrawal of TPV. In July 2016 BOC experienced a significant drop of its price (16%) probably due to the fact that BOC is not the standard of care anymore. On the other hand, the SIM, SOF and OBV/PAR/r/DAS price drop in July 2016 was negligible (o1%). A price reductions, similar to price reductions on USA market, could not be observed on the Croatian market. CONCLUSIONS: HCV drug price reductions have not been under direct impact of competition on the Croatian market but they are rather a consequence of competition on the EU5 and USA markets. The Croatian market is a typical market of a small and open economy without independent price setting. The principal reason for that is the Croatian EU membership with the prohibition of price discrimination, as well as a delayed drug introduction to the Croatian market in comparison to USA and EU5 markets.

HCV drug price dynamics

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