Objectives
The phase 3 trial, RESPOND-2, demonstrated that the addition of boceprevir (BOC) to peginterferon-ribavirin (PR) resulted in significantly higher rates of sustained virologic response (SVR) in previously treated patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype-1 infection as compared with PR alone. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of treatment with boceprevir in previously treated chronic hepatitis C patients in the United States utilizing treatment related data from RESPOND-2 and PROVIDE.
Methods
We developed a Markov cohort model to project the burden of HCV disease, lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALY) associated with PR and two BOC-based therapies—response-guided therapy (BOC/RGT) and fixed-duration therapy for 48 weeks (BOC/PR48). We estimated treatment related inputs (efficacy, adverse events, and discontinuations) from clinical trials and obtained disease progression rates, costs and quality-of-life data from published studies. We estimated the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for BOC-based regimens as studied in RESPOND-2, as well as by patient’s prior response to treatment and IL-28B genotype.
Results
Boceprevir-based regimens were projected to reduce the lifetime incidence of liver-related complications by 43–53% in comparison with treatment with PR. The ICER of BOC/RGT in comparison with PR was $30,200, and the ICER of BOC/PR48 in comparison with BOC/RGT was $91,500. At $50,000 willingness-to-pay, the probabilities BOC/RGT and BOC/PR48 being the preferred option were 0.74 and 0.25, respectively.
Conclusions
In patients previously treated for chronic HCV genotype-1 infection, boceprevir was projected to increase QALYs and reduce the lifetime incidence of liver complications. In addition, boceprevir-based therapies were projected to be cost-effective in comparison with PR alone at commonly used willingness-to-pay thresholds.
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