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As ocular drugs evolve, costs become an issue in Latin America
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BUENOS AIRES — With an array of advanced ocular drugs becoming available in Latin America, often with high prices, the challenge for ophthalmologists in developing countries will be to determine which are truly worth the additional cost, said Rubens Belfort Jr., MD, in a presentation here. Dr. Belfort, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, was an invited speaker at the Argentinean Society of Ophthalmology’s Annual Course.
“How can we make modern medicine accessible to everyone?” Dr. Belfort asked. “Without a doubt we are going to have some very important developments in the future. What we need to keep doing is to try to adopt what is already out there to our economic reality.”
Dr. Belfort noted that 72 million people in Latin America live on less than $1 a day. Roughly 200 million people — equal to the combined populations of Argentina and Brazil — live on just $2 a day, he said.
“Meanwhile, we have drugs that are increasingly expensive, that can cost $1,000 per injection,” Dr. Belfort said. Reconciling these prices with the low incomes of many patients will be a challenge for Latin America physicians, he said.
Dr. Belfort said that a handful of recently introduced drugs, such as the alpha-2 adrenergic agonist Alphagan (brimonidine 0.2%, Allergan), new cytotoxic drugs and ocular anti-infectives, are exciting. He also said that some of the new treatments for macular disease, such as Macugen (pegaptanib, Pfizer/Eyetech) and Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech) are already being used with success in Latin America.