OBJECTIVES: Immunosuppression (IS) following renal transplantation puts a significant burden on patients due to life-long dependency on medication, and on health-care systems due to high direct (IS medication) and indirect (management of adverse effects) costs. To change currently used “one-size-fits-all” strategy to personalized IS allowing minimization of long-term IS as much and as early as possible with the help of appropriate biomarkers would be a “game-changer”. This poster outlines methods and results of early-stage health-economic analyses, conducted prior to the evaluation of a corresponding clinical trial within the EU-funded BioDrIM project.

METHODS: Effects of a stratification tool to detect patients eligible for reduced immunosuppression protocols were analyzed based on a cost-model, comparing a status-quo and a stratified IS-medication strategy. Inputs to the model were medication prices, respective dosages and costs of pre-transplant patient stratification based on micro-costing. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to account for development-uncertainty regarding test-performance and upfront costs of patient stratification.

RESULTS: The micro-costing procedure identified costs of patient-stratification of €265 – €465. Model results showed average savings of patients, which are expected to amount more than €1000 already at one year post transplantation.

CONCLUSIONS: The early-stage model results are promising, but further analyses are needed to confirm average medication-dosages and assess broader health-economic effects, stemming from changes in quality of life and health-care resource consumption.