A real-word survey of anticancer drug wastage in a public chemotherapy center in the west of Iran

Background: The cost of anticancer drugs and their wastage has become a major concern for patients and health policy makers in developing countries. To date, no figures have been reported on the rate of loss of anticancer drugs in Iran. Therefore, we aimed to conduct a real-world analysis on the anticancer drug wastage in a public hospital. Methods: During a 3-month time span, we observationally collected drug information of all patients admitted for receiving anticancer drugs in the inpatient or outpatient unit of chemotherapy center by two oncology nurses. The amount of drug wastage and its financial cost were calculated based on the price approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) during the survey period. Results: A total of 626 patients were admitted for receiving twenty-four injectable anticancer drugs in 2023 infusions. The percentage of total drug wastage was 9.31% (95% CI, 5.90 –12.71%). Overall, these results indicated that the cost of drug wastage in this 3-month period was roughly 31,473 US dollars (USD) and estimated annual cost of wastage was nearly 125,894 USD (5,287,553,080 Iranian Rial). Conclusion: This is the first report of investigating anticancer drug wastage in Iran. According to this real-world survey, it was shown that the amount of drug wastage in this center is substantial and imposes a heavy financial burden on patients and the health system that need to be taken into account by policy makers.