Heterogeneity of the pharmacologic treatment of allergic rhinitis in
Europe based on MIDAS and OTCims platforms
Abstract
Background: 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. Methods: We conducted a pharmaco-epidemiological database
analysis to assess the medications that were 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). The UK was excluded due
to a lack of data. Results: Intra-nasal decongestants were excluded from
the analyses because they are not 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, intra-nasal 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
anti-histamines (41.4%) followed by intra-nasal corticosteroids
(30.1%). Results of other years were similar. Discussion: There are
major differences between countries in terms of rhino-conjunctivitis
medication usage.