PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF THE COST OF TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC HEPATITIS C VIRUS INFECTIONS WITH SOFOSBUVIR AND FIRST GENERATION ANTIVIRALS ACROSS EIGHT COUNTRIES
Author(s)
Benassi F, Labban M, Izmirlieva M, Ando G
IHS, London, UK
Presentation Documents
OBJECTIVES The new wave of HCV drugs reaching the market in 2014 offer higher cure rates and shorter treatment times; however, the new antivirals have been met with concerns regarding the costs associated with the new drugs by payors and the WHO. We have set out to examine the costs of treatment with sofosbuvir, compared to first generation antivirals in eight countries. METHODS We examined the ex-manufacturer price of sofosbuvir, telaprevir and boceprevir in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey, and the United States. Treatment costs were calculated using standard of care protocols for treatment of HCV genotype 1, including individual daily dosage strength and length of recommended treatment for each antiviral. Interferon and ribavirin costs, any potential discounts or rebates negotiated with payors and potential follow-up courses of therapy for sofosbuvir were excluded from the study. Prices were extracted from IHS Life Sciences’ international pricing database POLI. All foreign currency was converted to USD using XE Currency Converter for comparison. RESULTS Costs of treatment with sofosbuvir varied significantly across the eight countries, being highest in the US at USD84,000 then Portugal at USD75,816 down to USD52,051 in Norway. Telaprevir and boceprevir treatment costs range from a low of USD21,534 and USD14,111 in Turkey respectively, to a high of USD66,155 and USD40,120 in the US. On average across the eight countries, treatment with sofosbuvir was 104% higher than telaprevir, and 187% higher than boceprevir, based on the list price. CONCLUSIONS Our preliminary assessment has highlighted the variable treatment costs of HCV antivirals across countries. Comparisons of treatment costs with next generation treatments versus first-generation antivirals will see expenditure for HCV therapeutics increase significantly. However, sofosbuvir has demonstrated cure rates of over 95% in genotype 1 HCV patients with a favourable safety profile, thus reducing costs of re-treatment, medical visits, and treatment of advanced liver disease.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2014-11, ISPOR Europe 2014, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Value in Health, Vol. 17, No. 7 (November 2014)
Code
PIN30
Topic
Economic Evaluation
Topic Subcategory
Cost-comparison, Effectiveness, Utility, Benefit Analysis
Disease
Infectious Disease (non-vaccine)