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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

Glaucoma-inducing Procedure in an In Vivo Rat Model and Whole-mount Retina Preparation
Published on: March 12, 2016
[Cost-effectivity analysis of the most used antiglaucoma drugs]
A Galindo-Ferreiro1, H Sánchez-Tocino, M Fernández-Muñoz
1Servicio de Oftalmología, Hospital Universitario Río Hortega, Valladolid, España. ali_galindo@yahoo.es
Purpose:
To evaluate the yearly cost and the cost-effectiveness of commercially available topical products in treatment of glaucoma.
Methods:
This analysis evaluates 12 topical agents in glaucoma: Betoptic, Betagan, Timoftol, Timogel, Alphagan, Lumigan, Travatan, Xalatan, Trusopt, Azopt. The number of drops per bottle of glaucoma medications is determined for all commercially tested products. The yearly cost of the dosage schedules was compared. We selected for each one 5 to 10-reported comparative hypotensive efficacy studies and we calculated the cost-effectiveness as the ratio between the yearly cost and the mean hypotensive efficacy.
Results:
The range of hypotensive efficacy of monotherapy components is from 13.8% to 31.9%. Lumigan and Xalatan present the highest hypotensive efficacy, 31.9% and 28.6% respectively. The cheapest medication is the beta-blockers group. The cost-efficacy ratio of glaucoma therapy is 1.5 for Timoftol, 2.8 for Betagan, 9.6 for Alphagan, 9.1 for Lumigan, 10.7 for Xalatan and 11.3 for Travatan.
Conclusions:
Over time, Lumigan is significantly most effective in controlling IOP. The cost-effectiveness for managing IOP will depend on both price and hypotensive efficacy. The beta-blockers group has lower hypotensive efficacy than prostaglandin analogs but cost-effectiveness is better in the former because of its low price.
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