Study: Is Cost of Drugs Major Factor in Failure of Kidney Transplants?

Researchers from two universities are embarking on a new study aimed at determining whether an inability to afford immunosuppressive medication accounts for the higher organ failure rate of low-income kidney transplant recipients.

The University of New Hampshire and the Washington University School of Medicine have been awarded a $400,000 grant by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases [NIDDK] to examine various factors that may affect long-term kidney transplantation graft survival.

Robert Woodward, Professor of Health Economics at the University of New Hampshire, said the study will expand upon his previous research which found that low-income recipients had significantly greater organ loss after Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive medications ended.

"The long-term survival of a kidney transplant requires that the recipient take expensive immunosuppressive medications for the life of the transplant," Woodward says. "The cost of these medications averages $12,000 per year. Unfortunately, the inability to afford these medications and subsequent noncompliance is one of the most common causes of graft loss after Medicare's coverage expires."

In 1986 Medicare provided coverage for 80 percent of the cost of outpatient immunosuppressive medications for one year following kidney transplants. But this initial coverage has since been expanded to three years.

"Medicare's change from one to three years immunosuppression coverage provides a natural experiment," Woodward says. "Did the loss of insurance after three years increase the graft loss more among low-income recipients" transplanted in recent years?

Other Sources: University of New Hampshire