OBJECTIVES: Bimekizumab is a monoclonal IgG1 antibody that selectively inhibits interleukin (IL)-17F in addition to IL-17A, recently approved to treat patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in the European Union. This study compares the cost-per-responder (CPR) of bimekizumab with IL-17A and IL-12/23 targeted therapies (secukinumab and ustekinumab) for the treatment of patients with PsA in Spain.

METHODS: The CPR was calculated by dividing the average annual drug cost per patient by the response rates. Minimal disease activity (MDA), American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 50 and ACR70 response rates at week 52 from two published Matching-Adjusted Indirect Comparisons (MAIC) were used (no MDA data was available for comparison with ustekinumab). Spanish list prices were considered, including the Royal Decree Law 8/2010 discount. Dosing regimens were informed by each treatment’s Summary of Product Characteristics (bimekizumab 160mg-Q4W, secukinumab 150mg-Q4W (biologic-naïve patients), secukinumab 300mg-Q4W and ustekinumab 45mg-Q12W).

RESULTS: For MDA, bimekizumab had a lower CPR (€33,061 for biologic-naïve and €41,224 for TNFi-experienced patients) than secukinumab 300mg (€39,652 and €83,919, respectively), while CPR for bimekizumab for biologic-naïve (€33,061) was higher than secukinumab 150mg (€21,727). For ACR50, bimekizumab CPR were lower (€31,091 for biologic-naïve and €33,392 for TNFi-experienced patients) than ustekinumab (€42,639€ and €76,087, respectively). On ACR50, bimekizumab had similar CPR for biologic-naïve patients (€31,033) compared to secukinumab 300mg (€30,384), but lower CPR for TNFi-experienced patients (€34,928 vs. €58,098) and CPR for bimekizumab for biologic-naïve patients was higher (€31,033) than for secukinumab 150mg (€16,119). For ACR70, bimekizumab had similar results to MDA against secukinumab in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on published MAIC responses rates for MDA, ACR50 and ACR70 at week 52, the CPR analyses demonstrated many situations in which it is more cost-efficient to treat patients with PsA in Spain with bimekizumab than with secukinumab or ustekinumab.