Abstract

The practice of allergology varies widely between countries, and the costs and sales for the treatment of rhinitis differ depending on practices and health systems. To understand these differences and their implications, the rhinitis market was studied in some of the EU countries. We conducted a pharmaco-epidemiological database analysis to assess the medications that were being prescribed for allergic rhinitis in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. We used the IQVIA platforms for prescribed medicines (MIDAS®- Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services) and for OTC medicines (OTC International Market Tracking-OTCims). We selected the five most important markets in the EU (France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain). Intranasal decongestants were excluded from the analyses because they are rarely prescribed for allergic rhinitis. For both Standard Units (SU) and costs, France is leading the other countries. In terms of SU, the four other countries are similar. For costs, Poland is lower than the three others. However, medication use differs largely. For 2018, in SU, intranasal corticosteroid is the first treatment in Poland (70.0%), France (51.3%), Spain (51.1%) and Germany (50.3%), whereas the Italian market is dominated by systemic antihistamines (41.4%) followed by intranasal corticosteroids (30.1%). Results of other years were similar. There are major differences between countries in terms of rhinoconjunctivitis medication usage.

Highlights

  • Allergic rhinitis (AR) is one of the most common chronic conditions

  • The practice of allergology varies widely between countries, and the costs and sales for the treatment of rhinitis differ depending on practices and health systems

  • The present paper shows that there is a great heterogeneity in AR medications across Europe

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Summary

Introduction

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is one of the most common chronic conditions. Available treatments include allergen avoidance, pharmacotherapy with H1-­antihistamines or intranasal corticosteroids (INCS) and allergen-­specific immunotherapy (AIT).[1]. MASK-­air4-­6 is a Good Practice of DG Santé concerning the digital transformation of health.[7,8] The practice of allergology varies widely between countries, and the costs and sales for the treatment of rhinitis differ depending on practices and health systems. To understand these differences and their implications, it is important to have an overall view of the rhinitis market in some of the EU countries. Results: Intranasal decongestants were excluded from the analyses because they are rarely prescribed for allergic rhinitis For both Standard Units (SU) and costs, France is leading the other countries. Discussion: There are major differences between countries in terms of rhinoconjunctivitis medication usage

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