A cross-sectional Swiss study involving 124 pulmonary arterial hypertension patients across six centres estimated the annual cost at nearly €139,000 per patient, with direct healthcare costs accounting for 78.5% of this figure — driven predominantly by pharmacological treatment, which alone represented 65% of total costs. Indirect costs, including productivity losses and informal care, made up the remaining 21.5%.
Costs rose sharply with disease severity, from around €82,000 in WHO functional class I to nearly €167,000 in class IV, and from €131,000 in low-risk patients to nearly €292,000 in the high-risk group. The estimated total national burden amounts to €48.5 million per year. The authors conclude that pulmonary arterial hypertension imposes a substantial economic burden on Swiss society, underscoring the importance of strategies to slow disease progression.
Read more at this link on the National Library of Medicine
See also our article on the burden of pulmonary arterial hypertension in Italy at this link
Citation
Tomonaga Y, Lichtblau M, Ulrich S, Guler SA, Yerly P, Lechartier B, Fellrath JM, Bergeron A, Bondeelle L, Chirila SM, Favre-Bulle A, Stoffel S, Schwenkglenks M. Economic burden of pulmonary arterial hypertension in Switzerland. PLoS One. 2026 Apr 28;21(4):e0348190. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0348190. PMID: 42048354; PMCID: PMC13123976.