What is the typical cost of IVIG therapy (intravenous immunoglobulin) for primary immunodeficiency?

Treatment of patients with primary immunodeficiency disease with IVIG is expensive.

The average product and administrative cost per infusion in physicians’ offices in the United States in 2005 was $2,075. This includes a product cost of $1,807 for 32 grams of IVIG and $268 in administrative costs for a 3-hour infusion.

If we adjust this data from 2005 to reflect consumer price index inflation we would expect the average infusion to cost approximately $2,262 (as of year 2008). At one infusion every four weeks, this represents an average annual cost of $29,406 per patient.


Antibody function: each antibody binds to a specific antigen; an interaction similar to a lock and key. Image source: Wikipedia.

References:
Impact of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment among patients with Primary
Immunodeficiency diseases. Pharmaceuticals Policy and Law, 10 (2008), 133–146 (PDF).