title: Daily costs of prostaglandin analogues as monotherapy or in fixed combinations with timolol, in Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To compare the daily costs of 3 prostaglandin analogues (bimatoprost, latanoprost, travoprost), alone, and associated with timolol in 4 European countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six glaucoma products were sampled by buying 5 bottles from 1 suburban pharmacy in each of the 4 countries. Drops were weighed by a single operator at 1 site according to standardized procedures. Residual drops were then counted. Unit bottle costs were estimated from tariff lists. Eye-drop weights were entered into a nested analysis of variance comprising drug, instillation day, country, the interaction, and a sample factor nested within the country factor. Effectiveness was represented by treatment failure rates estimated from a meta-analysis and a general practitioner survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Every drug bottle contained sufficient drops to treat 1 patient for 28/31 days. Drop-size heterogeneity between countries was observed for bimatoprost and bimatoprost/timolol. Mean travoprost and travoprost/timolol drop-sizes were the smallest, and drop-counts per bottle were the lowest for latanoprost, or latanoprost/timolol. In all 4 countries annual costs were least for travoprost and travoprost/timolol.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  On taking into account drug costs and effectiveness, travoprost and travoprost/timolol were cheaper and more effective than latanoprost and latanoprost/timolol and were cheaper than bimatoprost and bimatoprost/timolol.
authors.affiliation: Lund Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bergström
authors.forename: Frédérique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maurel
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Le Pen
authors.forename: Emilie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lamure
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kent
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bardoulat
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Berdeaux