Researchers: Cost of diabetes care on rise

Newer drugs are more expensive

NEW YORK - Diabetes drug costs in the United States have almost doubled in six years to $12.5 billion as more people are diagnosed and patients receive newer, more expensive treatments, a study found.

Researchers, writing in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, questioned whether these newer drugs are more effective than older, cheaper treatments. About 18 million people in the United States were diagnosed with diabetes in 2007, an increase from 8.1 million in 1994, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Worldwide sales of diabetes drugs may jump to $22 billion by 2016, analysts say.

"Are the newer costs worth it, is really the million dollar question," said lead author G. Caleb Alexander, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

The study found the cost for diabetes drugs rose 87 percent to $12.5 billion in 2007 from $6.7 billion in 2001. Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to age, obesity, and lack of exercise, accounted for as many as 95 percent of diabetes cases in the United States. People with the condition don't produce enough insulin, or their cells ignore the insulin needed for the body to convert blood sugar to energy, according to the National Institutes of Health. Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney damage, and heart disease.

Researchers used two databases to look at trends in treatment in patients ages 35 and older with Type 2 diabetes who visited doctors from 1994 to 2007. Information on drug costs was available from 2001 to 2007.

The authors attributed the rising number of diabetes cases to Americans' calorie-rich diets and sedentary habits, and because doctors are screening more intensively and diagnosing patients in milder stages of the disease.

The researchers also found more people are being prescribed more than one drug. In 2007, 47 percent of patients received only one diabetes treatment, down from 82 percent in 1994.

The average price of diabetes' prescriptions rose to $76 in 2007 from $56 in 2001, the authors said.

Newer drugs such as Merck & Co.'s Januvia cost five to 11 times more than older, generic drugs such as metformin and glipizide, Alexander said.

Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said developing and introducing new medicines for Type 2 diabetes is "an important health priority."

"The public health cost of diabetes is very high, but more than 80 percent of the cost is due to hospitalizations and outpatient care related. . . . Drug cost represents less than one-fifth of the total cost," she said.

The research was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institutes of Health.