Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-c52kr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-06T22:30:42.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Modeling the cost-effectiveness of treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with rituximab using registry data from Southern Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2009

Peter Lindgren
Affiliation:
i3/innovus and Karolinska Institute
Pierre Geborek
Affiliation:
University of Lund and Lund University Hospital
Gisela Kobelt
Affiliation:
European Health Economics
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the cost-effectiveness of rituximab in patients not responding adequately to the first tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor using a model constructed to predict resource consumption and health outcomes in a population-based registry of biological treatments in Southern Sweden (SSATG).

Methods: The model was developed as a discrete event simulation model, using SSATG data for the years 1999–2007. The data set included 1,903 patients with complete data on treatments (up to three treatment lines), functional capacity (HAQ), disease activity (DAS28), and utility (EQ-5D). Resource consumption was based on a regular population-based survey of patients in Southern Sweden. Rituximab was incorporated as second line treatment, using effectiveness data for the active group (N = 311) in a clinical trial comparing rituximab to placebo (REFLEX). It is thus compared to the mix of second line biologics used in SSATG. The analysis starts after failure of the first TNF inhibitor. Results are reported as costs (€2008) per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY; both discounted 3 percent), for the societal perspective in Sweden.

Results: Total costs in the rituximab strategy are estimated at €401,100 compared with €403,000 in the TNF-inhibitor arm. Total QALYs are 5.98 and 5.78, respectively. The findings were found to be robust in extensive sensitivity analysis.

Conclusions: In our model, a strategy where rituximab is used as second line treatment after failure of the first TNF inhibitor provides a small saving (essentially due to the lower price of rituximab) and a QALY gain (due to better effect than the mix of second line TNF inhibitors).

Information

Type
General Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009
Figure 0

Table 1. Demographics of Patients in the SSATG Data Set

Figure 1

Figure 1. Outline of the model. The model is programed as a discrete event simulation model (DES model) where individual patients are simulated with their individual chronological events. The events are “start treatment,” “stop treatment,” and “die”; therefore, patients can be on treatment, off treatment, or dead. The chronology for this analysis is as follows: Simulation starts when patients start on second line treatment, either with a second tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor or with rituximab. Patients will stay on these treatments until discontinuation of the second line TNF inhibitor according to the Southern Swedish Arthritis Treatment Group Registry (SSATG) data or withdrawal from rituximab according to the rates in the clinical trial (REFLEX). Patients previously on a TNF inhibitor will then re-initiate treatment with their third TNF inhibitor according to the timings in SSATG. Patients previously on rituximab will receive their second TNF inhibitor. The simulation may end before all patients have re-initiated treatments. When patients fail again, they will switch to another TNF inhibitor again. In the absence of sufficient data to estimate the event rates for the fourth (or subsequent) TNF treatment lines, these are assumed to be the same as for the third line. Not all patients may re-initiate treatment, representing the data observed in SSATG, as treatment intervals may be longer than the simulation time. At any time during the simulation, patients can die according to disease-specific mortality. While on or between treatments, patients will have a certain HAQ (functional capacity) and DAS28 (disease activity), which in turn drive the costs and utilities.

Figure 2

Table 2. Model Estimates

Figure 3

Table 3. Results

Figure 4

Figure 2. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis. The scatterplot represents 1,000 second order simulations of the cost-effectiveness of rituximab used after failure of the first TNF inhibitor compared with current practice with further TNF inhibitors. The dashed diagonal line represents a theoretical willingness to pay (WTP) of 500,000SEK (€53,000) for a quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained. The ellipse is the 95 percent confidence interval covering 95 percent of the simulations.