IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0155934.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir (Harvoni) Be Cost-Effective and Affordable for Chinese Patients Infected with Hepatitis C Virus? An Economic Analysis Using Real-World Data

Author

Listed:
  • Guo-Feng Chen
  • Lai Wei
  • Jing Chen
  • Zhong-Ping Duan
  • Xiao-Guang Dou
  • Qing Xie
  • Wen-Hong Zhang
  • Lun-Gen Lu
  • Jian-Gao Fan
  • Jun Cheng
  • Gui-Qiang Wang
  • Hong Ren
  • Jiu-Ping Wang
  • Xing-Xiang Yang
  • Zhan-Sheng Jia
  • Qing-Chun Fu
  • Xiao-Jin Wang
  • Jia Shang
  • Yue-Xin Zhang
  • Ying Han
  • Ning Du
  • Qing Shao
  • Dong Ji
  • Fan Li
  • Bing Li
  • Jia-Liang Liu
  • Xiao-Xia Niu
  • Cheng Wang
  • Vanessa Wu
  • April Wong
  • Yu-Dong Wang
  • Jin-Lin Hou
  • Ji-Dong Jia
  • Hui Zhuang
  • George Lau

Abstract

Background: Little is known on the cost-effectiveness of novel regimens for hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared with standard-of-care with pegylated interferon (pegIFN) and ribavirin (RBV) therapy in developing countries. We evaluated cost-effectiveness of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir for 12 weeks compared with a 48-week pegIFN-RBV regimen in Chinese patients with genotype 1b HCV infection by economic regions. Methods: A decision analytic Markov model was developed to estimate quality-adjusted-life-years, lifetime cost of HCV infection and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs). SVR rates and direct medical costs were obtained from real-world data. Parameter uncertainty was assessed by one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Threshold analysis was conducted to estimate the price which can make the regimen cost-effective and affordable. Results: Sofosbuvir/ledipasvir was cost-effective in treatment-experienced patients with an ICER of US$21,612. It varied by economic regions. The probability of cost-effectiveness was 18% and 47% for treatment-naive and experienced patients, and it ranged from 15% in treatment-naïve patients in Central-China to 64% in treatment-experienced patients in Eastern-China. The price of 12-week sofosbuvir/ledipasvir treatment needs to be reduced by at least 81% to US$18,185 to make the regimen cost-effective in all patients at WTP of one time GDP per capita. The price has to be US$105 to make the regimen affordable in average patients in China. Conclusion: Sofosbuvir/ledipasvir regimen is not cost-effective in most Chinese patients with genotype 1b HCV infection. The results vary by economic regions. Drug price of sofosbuvir/ledipasvir needs to be substantially reduced when entering the market in China to ensure the widest accessibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo-Feng Chen & Lai Wei & Jing Chen & Zhong-Ping Duan & Xiao-Guang Dou & Qing Xie & Wen-Hong Zhang & Lun-Gen Lu & Jian-Gao Fan & Jun Cheng & Gui-Qiang Wang & Hong Ren & Jiu-Ping Wang & Xing-Xiang Yang, 2016. "Will Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir (Harvoni) Be Cost-Effective and Affordable for Chinese Patients Infected with Hepatitis C Virus? An Economic Analysis Using Real-World Data," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-13, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0155934
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155934
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155934
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155934&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0155934?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alena M Pfeil & Oliver Reich & Ines M Guerra & Sandrine Cure & Francesco Negro & Beat Müllhaupt & Daniel Lavanchy & Matthias Schwenkglenks, 2015. "Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Sofosbuvir Compared to Current Standard Treatment in Swiss Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yin Liu & Hui Zhang & Lei Zhang & Xia Zou & Li Ling, 2020. "Economic Evaluation of Hepatitis C Treatment Extension to Acute Infection and Early-Stage Fibrosis Among Patients Who Inject Drugs in Developing Countries: A Case of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Pingyu Chen & Min Jin & Yang Cao & Hongchao Li, 2021. "Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Oral Direct-Acting Antivirals for Chinese Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 371-387, May.
    3. Yun Lu & Xiuze Jin & Cheng-a-xin Duan & Feng Chang, 2018. "Cost-effectiveness of daclatasvir plus asunaprevir for chronic hepatitis C genotype 1b treatment-naïve patients in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nathalie Vernaz & François Girardin & Nicolas Goossens & Urs Brügger & Marco Riguzzi & Arnaud Perrier & Francesco Negro, 2016. "Drug Pricing Evolution in Hepatitis C," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-12, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0155934. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.