Sublingual immunotherapy tablet: a cost-minimizing alternative in the treatment of tree pollen-induced seasonal allergic rhinitis in Canada

Table 2 Resource costs for SQ Tree SLIT-tablets and Tree Pollen SCIT

Cost category	Cost type		$CAD/unit
Cost category	Ontario	Quebec	Ontario	Quebec
SQ Tree SLIT-tablets	Box of 30 tablets		132.00
SQ Tree SLIT-tablets	Dispensing fee/claim [20, 22]		8.83	9.28
Tree Pollen SCIT vials^*^#	Pre-Seasonal Treatment: Presaisonnier- Arbres Complete Treatment [Allegro—99101142] (one treatment) [21]		265.00
Tree Pollen SCIT vials^*^#	Annual Treatment—10 mL concentrate—Monovalent standardise [Allegro—99101107] (one vial) [21]		265.00
Physician	Medical specific re-assessment (follow-up visit), specialist consultation, A474 [23]	Initial visit, under 80, In office or at home, less than 500 patients (average)—Code 15801 [24]	63.70	75.13
	Partial assessment (pre- or post-injection), specialist consultation, A478 [23]	Follow-up visit, under 80, In office or at home, less than 500 patients (average)—Code 15803 [24]	38.25	37.55
	Injection (sole reason for visit), G202 [23]	Hyposensitization treatment, without examination, one or more injections in same session—Code 00400 [24]	4.45	5.10
	Injection (with consultation at same visit), G212 [23]		9.75	5.10
Nurse	Hourly wage [25, 26] (Scenario Analysis)		39.22	34.22
Patient	Average hourly wage [27]		28.52	29.01
Patient	Travel expense by private car [28]		0.59

SQ Tree SLIT standardized quality Tree pollen sublingual immunotherapy, Tree Pollen SCIT Tree Pollen subcutaneous immunotherapy
*In Canada, a dispensing fee is a professional fee that is charges by the pharmacy for each filled prescription
^#Physicians noted that pre-seasonal formulations and annual formulations vary but under the Quebec public formulary (RAMQ, [21]), prices for both sets are the same. Other company’s SCIT products were not included in the analyses, however, of note, for the Quebec public formulary, the products from OMEGA are priced similarly, or are more expensive, than the included products

ISSN: 1710-1492