The Cost of Prophylaxis

aspirin is inexpensive and is readily available. The Cost of Prophylaxis for a year is 365 times the cost of a tablet, say about £2.50 ($3.5). A more meaningful estimate is, however, the cost per cardiovascular event prevented. In secondary prevention about three events are prevented per year per 100 patients given low-dose aspirin, and that means that the prevention of each event costs about £80 ($110).

This compares rather favourably with published estimates of the cost of preventing cardiovascular events by cholesterol lowering with drugs: £12,000 to £60,000 54-6 ($9,000-44,000).