Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by airway inflammation, affecting 45.7 million Chinese adults, of whom 3.4% to 8.3% have severe asthma. This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of dupilumab plus background therapy compared with omalizumab plus background therapy in the treatment of severe asthma from the perspective of Chinese health system.
METHODS: A Markov model was established. The clinical efficacy, health utility and cost data were obtained from the clinical trials, published literature and clinical expert opinion. Lifetime disease outcomes, effectiveness, and costs of each intervention were calculated. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) calculated with two times of GDP per capita (CNY 178,716 in 2023) was setting as the cost-effectiveness threshold. Scenario analysis, one way sensitivity analysis and probability sensitivity analysis were carried out to test the robustness of the results.
RESULTS: Dupilumab required annual drug costs of CNY 62,634 for severe asthma patients. The total costs were CNY 490,663 for patients used dupilumab and CNY 615,213 for patients used omalizumab for lifetime, respectively. Total quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were 13.11 and 12.68. Compared with omalizumab, dupilumab decreased costs by CNY 124,549 and increased QALYs by 0.43, indicating that the group of dupilumab was dominant. In scenarios analysis, the group of dupilumab still was cost-effective. Sensitivity analysis verified the robustness of the above results.
CONCLUSIONS: As one of the biologics for severe asthma patients in China, dupilumab required the lowest annual drug costs among biologics. Compared with the first approved omalizumab, dupilumab was dominant in the treatment of severe asthma patients.