TY - JOUR
T1 - Cost-effectiveness analysis of boceprevir for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1 infection in Portugal
AU - Elbasha, Elamin H.
AU - Chhatwal, Jagpreet
AU - Ferrante, Shannon A.
AU - El Khoury, Antoine C.
AU - Laires, Pedro A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Disclosures This study was sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA. Dr. Chhatwal was a former employee of and has received consulting fees from Merck. Dr. El Khoury was a former employee and Drs Elbasha, Ferrante and Laires are current employees of Merck and all hold stocks and/or stock options.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Background: The recent approval of two protease inhibitors, boceprevir and telaprevir, is likely to change the management of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection. Objectives: We evaluated the long-term clinical outcomes and the cost effectiveness of therapeutic strategies using boceprevir with peginterferon plus ribavirin (PR) in comparison with PR alone for treating HCV genotype 1 infection in Portugal. Methods: A Markov model was developed to project the expected lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) associated with PR alone and the treatment strategies outlined by the European Medicines Agency in the boceprevir summary of product characteristics. The boceprevir-based therapeutic strategies differ according to whether or not the patient was previously treated and whether or not the patient had compensated cirrhosis. The model simulated the experience of a series of cohorts of chronically HCV-infected patients (each defined by age, sex, race and fibrosis score). All treatment-related inputs were obtained from boceprevir clinical trials - SPRINT-2, RESPOND-2 and PROVIDE. Estimates of the natural history parameters and health state utilities were based on published studies. Portugal-specific annual direct costs of HCV health states were estimated by convening a panel of experts to derive health state resource use and multiplying the results by national unit costs. The model was developed from a healthcare system perspective with a timeframe corresponding to the remaining duration of the patients' lifetimes. Both future costs and QALYs were discounted at 5 %. To test the robustness of the conclusions, we conducted deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results: In comparison with the treatment with PR alone, boceprevir-based regimens were projected to reduce the lifetime incidence of advanced liver disease, liver transplantation, and liver-related death by 45-51 % and increase life expectancy by 2.3-4.3 years. Although the addition of BOC increased treatment costs by €13,300-€19,700, the reduction of disease burden resulted in a decrease of €5,400-€9,000 in discounted health state costs and an increase of 0.68-1.23 in discounted QALYs per patient. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of the boceprevir-based regimens compared with PR among previously untreated and previously treated patients were €11,600/QALY and €8,700/QALY, respectively. The results were most sensitive to variations in sustained virologic response rates, discount rates and age at treatment. Conclusions: Adding boceprevir to PR was projected to reduce the number of liver complications and liver-related deaths, and to be cost effective in treating both previously untreated and treated patients.
AB - Background: The recent approval of two protease inhibitors, boceprevir and telaprevir, is likely to change the management of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 infection. Objectives: We evaluated the long-term clinical outcomes and the cost effectiveness of therapeutic strategies using boceprevir with peginterferon plus ribavirin (PR) in comparison with PR alone for treating HCV genotype 1 infection in Portugal. Methods: A Markov model was developed to project the expected lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) associated with PR alone and the treatment strategies outlined by the European Medicines Agency in the boceprevir summary of product characteristics. The boceprevir-based therapeutic strategies differ according to whether or not the patient was previously treated and whether or not the patient had compensated cirrhosis. The model simulated the experience of a series of cohorts of chronically HCV-infected patients (each defined by age, sex, race and fibrosis score). All treatment-related inputs were obtained from boceprevir clinical trials - SPRINT-2, RESPOND-2 and PROVIDE. Estimates of the natural history parameters and health state utilities were based on published studies. Portugal-specific annual direct costs of HCV health states were estimated by convening a panel of experts to derive health state resource use and multiplying the results by national unit costs. The model was developed from a healthcare system perspective with a timeframe corresponding to the remaining duration of the patients' lifetimes. Both future costs and QALYs were discounted at 5 %. To test the robustness of the conclusions, we conducted deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Results: In comparison with the treatment with PR alone, boceprevir-based regimens were projected to reduce the lifetime incidence of advanced liver disease, liver transplantation, and liver-related death by 45-51 % and increase life expectancy by 2.3-4.3 years. Although the addition of BOC increased treatment costs by €13,300-€19,700, the reduction of disease burden resulted in a decrease of €5,400-€9,000 in discounted health state costs and an increase of 0.68-1.23 in discounted QALYs per patient. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of the boceprevir-based regimens compared with PR among previously untreated and previously treated patients were €11,600/QALY and €8,700/QALY, respectively. The results were most sensitive to variations in sustained virologic response rates, discount rates and age at treatment. Conclusions: Adding boceprevir to PR was projected to reduce the number of liver complications and liver-related deaths, and to be cost effective in treating both previously untreated and treated patients.
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U2 - 10.1007/s40258-012-0007-8
DO - 10.1007/s40258-012-0007-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 23355388
AN - SCOPUS:84873469513
SN - 1175-5652
VL - 11
SP - 65
EP - 78
JO - Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
JF - Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
IS - 1
ER -