The Budgetary Impact of Diabetic Comorbidities | Physician & Payer Forum | Brazil and Mexico | 2015
A Focus on Prescribing Trends and Payer Strategy for Diabetic Macular Edema and Diabetic Nephropathy
Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) often present with multiple comorbidities, which boosts overall medical care costs. As the number of patients with T2D increases with population aging, so will the prevalence of diabetic comorbidities, including diabetic macular edema (DME) and diabetic nephropathy (DN). Such comorbidities are frequently an outcome of uncontrolled T2D, which results from a multitude of factors including poor access to more-effective, but yet premium-priced therapies, and poor compliance with treatment (usually metformin, followed by other less-expensive options such as sulfonylureas). Indeed, the use of novel therapies, such as DPP-IV inhibitors, GLP-1 analogues, and SGLT-2 inhibitors, which could provide greater disease control and thus lower the incidence of diabetes-related comorbidities, is hampered by limited healthcare budgets. Moreover, the detection and management of DME and DN is also far from ideal in these cost-constrained markets, which drives faster disease progression and significantly increases the financial and societal impact of these comorbidities and, consequently, the budgetary burden of T2D.