Treatment non-compliance can be risky for patients

Patients may not realize that they’re exposing themselves to a high risk of the complications of their disease if they are not compliant in taking their medications. Non-compliance is also more expensive in the long run if the disease becomes more complicated because of poor control.

Conrado R. is a 54-year old breadwinner, currently undergoing dialysis three times weekly because of kidney failure caused by long-standing, poorly controlled high blood pressure. He skipped his medicines previously to save money. Now, the whole family has to raise more than P10,000 weekly just to sustain his dialysis.

There are many patients who do not adhere to their doctor’s instructions on how to take their medicine properly, in terms of dose and frequency required by their illness. This is particularly true for medicines that have to be taken for chronic diseases such as diabetes, tuberculosis, asthma, high blood pressure and cholesterol problems.

The main reason for their non-compliance is financial; they simply can’t afford to sustain their treatment.

Unsuccessful treatment is the most logical result of non-compliance. Worse, it could even lead to death of patients. In the United States, more than a million patients die each year due to chronic illnesses because of non-compliance.

For chronic diseases, the key toward a successful treatment is patient compliance. Even the best treatment plan fails without patient compliance.

Other unfavorable results of non-compliance include worsening of quality of life and additional burden on the pocket. For example, poor compliance in taking prescribed drugs for diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol problems and chronic lung diseases could lead to more serious complications which will make treating the patient more expensive in the long run.

For an average Filipino worker, the cost of medication is one of the major obstacles to patient compliance. Pharmacoeconomics is intended to address this problem. In the Philippines, the concept of pharmacoeconomics, which aims to deliver high-quality and affordable medicines, is slowly gaining popularity.

Pharmacoeconomics’ underlying principle is to reduce healthcare cost, specifically for patients with chronic diseases. While cutting on cost, it takes into consideration the drugs’ efficacy in treating the medical condition for which it was prescribed.

In pharmacoeconomics, the price of a drug does not show its real cost. A brand of medicine marketed at a lower price but is not effective may cause additional expenses in terms of hospitalization. The complications which may arise from the use of an ineffective drug will also result in diminished income and productivity of a patient.

The idea of pharmacoeconomics is to help the patient be able to afford his medicines so he can take his drug for a longer period of time or as long as necessary to treat his medical problems.

Pharmacoeconomics offers an alternative to the more expensive drugs, with the goal of making sure that the medicine is taken by the patient strictly according to their doctors’ prescription.

Choosing drugs which are therapeutic equivalents is of increasing concern, especially now that chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems, tuberculosis and asthma have reached epidemic proportions.

Through pharmacoeconomics, clinicians and patients have an affordable treatment option which is proven to be safe, effective and bioequivalent to the originator product.

The various divisions of Unilab, a leading pharmaceutical company in the country, is committed to helping improve healthcare delivery to the average Filipino family by providing them with high-quality and affordable medicines for common medical problems. Its commitment is reflected in its slogan, "Mga gamot na umuubra sa presyong ‘di sobra!"