Pharmaceutical industry research and cost savings in community-acquired pneumonia

Objective: To provide financial justification for continuing pharmaceutical research in an environment that has met with increasing resistance from insurance carriers to paying for the care of patients enrolled in research studies. Study design: Matched case-control study of patients enrolled into inpatient community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) pharmaceutical research protocols. Patients and methods: Case patients were enrolled into a CAP pharmaceutical research trial. Control patients were obtained from a prospective cohort study of CAP. Cases were matched to controls on the basis of age, sex, pneumonia severity index (PSI) grade, and comorbid illnesses as measured by the PSI and Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scoring systems. Financial data were obtained from hospital billing records. Results: Twenty-five cases were identified and matched to appropriate controls. There was no statistically significant difference in mean PSI and APACHE II scores between cases and controls. There was a significant reduction in the total charges for hospital care of patients enrolled into a pharmaceutical industry trial ($6267 vs $9979; P = .03). As expected, the most dramatic reduction was in pharmacy charges ($642 vs $1797; P = .002), but there were trends toward lower charges in all cost subgroups. Interestingly, there was also a strong trend toward reduced length of hospital stay associated with enrollment in a pharmaceutical trial (4.5 vs 6.0 days; P = .06). Conclusion: Enrollment in a pharmaceutical research protocol results in significant cost savings in patients admitted to the hospital with CAP and may lead to earlier hospital discharge.