Bosentan Is Cost-Effective For Patients With Moderate PAH

Main Category: Hypertension
Article Date: 26 Jun 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Bosentan appears to be a more cost-effective initial treatment option for patients with moderate pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), classified as WHO functional class III, than no active intervention.

A cost-utility model was constructed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bosentan compared with no active intervention, both added to palliative care in the UK. In the model, simulated patients remained on their initial intervention until death or until they deteriorated to functional class IV, which triggered initiation of intravenous epoprostenol treatment.

In the base-case analysis, which assumed that first line treatment did not affect survival, bosentan was more effective and less costly than no active intervention. When survival benefits associated with bosentan treatment were taken into consideration, bosentan was found to be a potential cost effective first line treatment. The work, led by Matt Stevenson was conducted at the University of Sheffield.

Dr Stevenson commented: "Long-term follow-up data from randomised controlled trials show that bosentan significantly delays progression to more severe states compared with no active intervention. This results in both potential cost-savings due to a reduction in the duration of relatively expensive epoprostenol treatment and in an improvement in the quality of life for patients."

This study is published in Value in Health, the official journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research.

Value in Health (ISSN 1098-3015) publishes papers, concepts, and ideas that advance the field of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research and help health care leaders to make decisions that are solidly evidence-based. The journal is published bi-monthly and has a regular readership of over 4,000 clinicians, decision-makers, and researchers worldwide.

ISPOR is a nonprofit, international organization that strives to translate pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research into practice to ensure that society allocates scarce health care resources wisely, fairly, and efficiently.

Source
ISPOR