Psychiatria pre prax 5–6/2010

Consumption of antialzheimer´s drugs in Slovakia

The market for antialzheimer´s drugs is one of the smallest of all pharmaceutical markets both in volume and in value. In 2009, 1.99 million daily doses were prescribed at a total cost of EUR 5.6 million. Memantine was the most prescribed molecule and was taken by one third of all patients. A regulation provision was issued by health insurance companies which decreased their expenses in 2004 and 2005 by 25 % compared to 2003. However, the quality of the health care was also decreased as the savings were created due to a decrease of the number of patients. After the cancellation of this provision, the development returned to the original dynamics. From 2005, the growth in consumption was non-linear with an increase of year-to-year growth. One of the results was three times higher consumption in 2009 compared to 2004. Antialzheimer´s drugs are one of most rapidly growing group of drugs as regards consumption. The increase expressed in EUR was slightly less than for daily doses. The ratio between 2009 and 2004 was 2.9 for daily doses, whereas in EUR this ratio was “only” 2.1. A decrease of the price of the daily dose from EUR 6 in 1999 to a third of this level in 2009 is responsible for the difference. A comparison with neighbouring countries shows that an increase in consumption was uniform across the whole region. On the other hand, the differences in consumption among individual countries were higher than expected. The consumption of antialzheimer´s drugs per inhabitant was 4 times higher in Austria than in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and 12.5 times higher than in Hungary. The consumption of antialzheimer´s drugs in Slovakia will probably continue to increase in a non-linear manner. An extrapolation of current trends gives a prediction that in 2020 the size of the antialzheimer´s market will be 7 times higher than in 2009.

Keywords: Alzheimer dementia, antialzheimer´s drugs, consumption.