Health, social cost of multiple sclerosis 45 thousand euros per patient per year

The socioeconomic weight of multiple sclerosis can be quantified, according to available data, at 45 thousand euros per year per person affected by the disease. A figure that can reach 84 thousand euros in the case of multiple sclerosis at an advanced stage. “It is important that we recognize the need to give the right therapies to the right person. No limits should be set and everyone should be given the opportunity to treat themselves with the right drug. It is a fundamental theme to prevent the word personalized medicine from being in vain. We must all work on this, including the institutions. “This is the reflection of Mario Alberto Battagliapresident of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and general director of the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association (Aism).

“Therapeutic innovation can change the reality” of multiple sclerosis “from a clinical and personal point of view. It can ensure that a person lives his own life, that he continues to work “, observes Battaglia today during a meeting that was held in Milan, after the green light of the Italian drug agency Aifa for the reimbursement of ofatumumab, a highly effective treatment at home, targeted at B cells, indicated for adults with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (Smrr). The slowing of the progression of the disease and the reduction of associated disability allow “that the patient can burden less on the costs of the disease, on the clinical and health costs , but also social. And this is not marginal to the extent that we know with recent data that the average annual social cost of multiple sclerosis is around 45 thousand euros “per patient. Not making the disease progress also means “not having a high social cost” which “can reach up to 80 thousand euros per year.“.

Battaglia highlights the importance of being able to “choose the appropriate therapy for the person’s condition, share with the neurologist a path of choice of what is the best therapy to slow down the progression and change the future of the disease“. Personalization of treatments” also means thinking about how to face the difficulties, the aspects of the person’s daily life. Home therapy is always important because it is compatible with work, it is compatible with the activities and choices that each one wants to make and obviously also has an economic implication. “Being able to be in effect” a person “and” a productive person ” that “it does not burden society” is what patients ask. “The cost of the therapies is there, but the cost-benefit is certainly favorable”, also due to the lower impact on the health system.