OBJECTIVES: This study sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of anemia treatment in dialysis patients for Brazilian Public Health System. Two alternatives were compared: a new drug, the Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator, CERA, recently registred in Brazil, and another one, provided nowadays by the National Health System, Epo-rHu (Recombinant Human Eythropoietin). METHODS: A Markov cohort of dialysis patients treated with CERA and Epo-rHu for four years was used to perform the base case analysis. The model outputs were QALYs and costs. The quality of life associated with each drug was measured by interviews applied to health care professionals. These interviews were previously submitted and approved by the local ethics committee. A sensitivity analysis was applied to the model to test it, varying the values of drugs dosage, costs, discount rate and effectiveness.  RESULTS: The average quality of life assigned by health care professionals to the patients treated with Epo-rHu, CERA and to kidney transplant receptors were respectively 6,3, 7,8 and 9,3. The model showed that Epo-rHu treatment was more cost-effective than CERA treatment. The cost-effectiveness ratio of Epo-rHu therapy was R$ 21.052,00. In addition, the cost per QALY gained of CERA therapy was R$ 72.974,00.  CONCLUSIONS: Anemia treatment with CERA is associated with improvement in quality of life compared to Epo-rHu therapy. However, the new drug is not more cost-effective than the drug provided by the Brazilian Public Health System.