What are the costs of oral and intravenous iron treatments?
The cost of oral iron therapy was taken from the Drug Tariff, May 2016240 with the number of tablets prescribed estimated from the Prescription Cost Analysis, July 2016.143 Table 56 below, shows a weighted average of the 2 most commonly prescribed tablets. Intravenous iron costs were updated from the NICE clinical guideline entitled Anaemia management in people with chronic kidney disease (AMCKD) (NG8). In the AMCKD guideline, cost was estimated based on: drug cost, staff time, clinical space, administrator time, and transport. Detail regarding the sources and assumptions used for costing are outlined below. Staff time was estimated by the committee members and the infusion time dependent on drug SPCs. Observation (30 minutes) is required for all regimens. It was assumed that a nurse would observe 2 patients concurrently. The cost of a band 6 nurse at a rate of 51 per hour was applied80.