UTI antibiotics Rx-to-OTC switch would not be cost effective -- epidemiology study.
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
UTI ANTIBIOTICS Rx-TO-OTC SWITCH WOULD NOT BE COST-EFFECTIVE in the long term, Betsy Foxman, PhD, University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Nicole Rubin of the Sausalito, Calif.-based Lewin Group, assert in the November Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. OTC sale of antibiotics for urinary tract infections would lead to additional treatment costs of "more than $300 mil." over a 20-year period as well as increased resistance to the drugs resulting from their expanded availability, according the authors' cost-effectiveness analysis conducted under a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases.