The Costs of Industry-Sponsored Medical Device Clinical Trials in Alberta

Ilke Akpinar; Arto Ohinmaa; Lars Thording; Dat T Tran; Richard N Fedorak; Lawrence Richer; Philip Jacobs

doi:10.1007/s41669-019-0137-0

The Costs of Industry-Sponsored Medical Device Clinical Trials in Alberta

Pharmacoecon Open. 2019 Dec;3(4):591-597. doi: 10.1007/s41669-019-0137-0.

Authors

Ilke Akpinar¹, Arto Ohinmaa², Lars Thording³, Dat T Tran⁴, Richard N Fedorak⁵, Lawrence Richer⁶, Philip Jacobs⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, University of Alberta, 3-267 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, 11405-87 Ave, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1C9, Canada. ilke@ualberta.ca.
² School of Public Health, University of Alberta, 3-267 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, 11405-87 Ave, Edmonton, AB, T6G 1C9, Canada.
³ Innovative Health, Scottsdale, AZ, USA.
⁴ Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁵ Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: Our objective was to describe the costs of industry-sponsored clinical trials for medical devices in Northern Alberta, Canada.

Methods: We used centralized data to identify all industry-sponsored medical device clinical trials initiated in Northern Alberta from 2012 to 2016. For each arm of each trial, we calculated the price of devices provided by the sponsor and the cost of clinical and administrative services that were incurred to clinically operationalize the treatment.

Results: Our sample consisted of 18 device trials initiated between January 2012 and January 2016. The overall cost (Canadian dollars [$Can], year 2018 values) per enrolee was $Can18,243 for the experimental arm and $Can13,827 for the control arm. Devices were the highest cost component, at $Can13,446 per enrollee in the experimental arm. Clinical costs in the control arms were higher on average ($Can7202 vs. 2504) than those in the experimental arms.

Conclusion: Data from industry-sponsored clinical trials can provide important information on the full costs of device-related interventions. As device costs rise, and as policy makers require more evidence on device-related treatments, the cost of medical device-driven interventions should be documented along with their effectiveness.