Inhibitors of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) have made possible the treatment of the Retinal Vascular Diseases (RVD) for which there were limited therapeutic resources. The aim of this work was to estimate annual direct costs of major macular edema diseases in Italy in particular Choroidal Neovascularization (CNV), Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) and Retinal Vein Occlusions (RVO) from the hospital perspectives.

This descriptive study was aimed at quantifying direct costs incurred by five hospitals in Italy. Administrative and clinical databases of Policlinico Tor Vergata in Rome were analyzed for a 6-year period. In this context, it was possible to stratify patients depending on the disease and number of eyes treated. From these results, a survey with structured questionnaires was developed involving four other hospitals in Italy. Thanks to that, direct costs (drugs and specialist) were estimated from the hospitals perspective in 2016.

Interviews included 7,356 individuals of which 1,860 were treated in both eyes. Within the considered five hospitals, 64 percent of treated patients had CNV, 21 percent DME, and 15 percent RVOs. The average annual administration rate of anti-VEGF treatment resulted in 4.03 (Standard Deviation, SD 3.46) per patient eye: 4.69 (SD 1.75) for cases enrolled for less than one year (naïve) and 3.38 (SD 0.82) per patients treated for more than one year (experienced). Naïve patients had a mean per capita annual cost of EUR2,368 per eye (EUR2,536 for CNV; EUR2,280 RVO; EUR1,986 DME) of which EUR2,952 was related to the administration of on-label drugs mainly Eylea, Lucentis, Macugen, Ozurdex and EUR49 due to off-labels such as Avastin. Experienced patients average annual cost per eye was EUR1,689: EUR2.179 for the on-label drugs, EUR34 due to off-labels (EUR1,839 for CNV; EUR1,327 RVO; EUR1,399 DME). The average rate of the specialist annual visit was four times; the most frequent types were Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), Angiography, and Fundus Photography (FP).

This is a first attempt to study direct costs incurred from the hospital perspective associated with RVD with overexpression of VEGF in Italy. This might represent a first step for further analysis assessing the burden of RVD diseases from the Italian National Health System perspective globally.