Cost-effectiveness of novel regimens for Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis C

Abstract

Objective: Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have been approved for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in China. However, they are substantially more expensive. The current analysis will investigate the cost-effectiveness of novel regimens compared with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PR) therapies for informing Chinese decision-makers.

Methods: A Markov model was developed to measure economic and health outcomes of novel regimens for genotype 1b, 2, 3, and 6 HCV infections compared with PR treatment. Clinical, cost, and utility inputs were gathered from published sources. Discounted quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) are shown. The uncertainty was facilitated by one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

Results: For genotype 1b HCV infection, the combination of paritaprevir, ritonavir, ombitasvir and dasabuvir was cost-saving compared with four competing alternatives. The ICERs of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for genotypes 2 and 3 were lower than the threshold ($18,234/QALY). Among available strategies for patients with genotype 6, sofosbuvir in combination with ribavirin was the cost-saving alternative compared with PR. The results were robust to sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions: For both genotype 1b and 6 HCV infections in the context of Chinese patients, there were combinations of DAAs that were cost-saving compared with the usual PR treatment, and cost-effective for genotypes 2 and 3.

Keywords:

• Health economics
• Hepatitis C
• Direct-acting antiviral agents
• Chinese setting

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This study was supported by the Fourth Round of the Three-year Action Plan on Public Health Discipline and Talent Program (Evidence-based Public Health and Health Economics, No. 15GWZK0901and 15GW2K0102) from Shanghai Health Commission.

Declaration of financial/other interests

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.