Economic aspects of sublingual immunotherapy

Allergic rhinitis and asthma have a very high prevalence and constitute a health problem with a relevant burden of disease, concerning medical and economical issues. Among the treatments of allergy, specific immunotherapy (IT) has the capacity to favourably alter the natural history of the disease both during and after its performance, and thus to reduce the direct and indirect costs of allergic rhinitis and asthma. A number of studies reported a cost reduction for traditional, subcutaneous IT (SCIT). We analyzed the available studies on economic evaluation of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) in children and adults. Articles were retrieved from Medline and Embase using the terms economic aspects, pharmacoeconomics, cost effectiveness, and sublingual immunotherapy. 18 articles were found in English language, 7 studies investigated the economic advantage of SLIT over standard drug treatment in subjects with respiratory allergy, and 2 of them included a comparison of costs of SCIT and SLIT. The data obtained provide evidence that SLIT is associated to economic advantages and/or monetary savings, specifically in terms of reduction of economic burden of the disease. Although the number of studies is still limited, the available data support a SLIT effect on sparing costs for respiratory allergy.