Cost-effectiveness analysis of acalabrutinib in treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory form of mantle cell lymphoma who previously received at least one line of therapy

Objective: to conduct a clinical and economic study of acalabrutinib for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory form of mantle cell lymphoma who previously received at least one line of therapy in the Russian Federation.

Material and methods. Acalabrutinib and ibrutinib were considered as compared treatment options. Based on the adjusted indirect comparison, they were found to be comparable in terms of overall survival and progression-free survival. Therefore, a cost minimization analysis method was selected for the study. Based on results of ACE-LY-004 clinical trial a distributed survival model was developed. The model was used to calculate drug costs over a 3-year horizon. To explore uncertainty in the results of economic evaluations we conducted a sensitivity analysis. A number of patients in the hypothetical cohort who could be further treated with a less expensive drug was determined during a missed opportunity analysis. Both mean life years gained and mean progression-free life years were calculated too.

Results. Based on simulations over a 3-year horizon, the mean life years gained were 2.45, and the mean progression-free life years were 1.75. The average costs of acalabrutinib therapy both over 1 year and in total over 3 years were 36.6% lower compared to ibrutinib. So, in the 1st year, the costs for acalabrutinib were 3,546,237,60 rubles, for ibrutinib – 5,591,391,00 rubles (a difference of 2,045,153,40 rubles). Using acalabrutinib for 3 years was associated with costs of 7,252,980,60 rubles compared to 11,435,852,60 rubles for ibrutinib (a decrease of 4,182,872,00 rubles). Univariate multi-way sensitivity analysis showed the robustness of modeling results to price fluctuations in the range ±10%. For a hypothetical cohort of 100 patients, using acalabrutinib instead of the more expensive ibrutinib within the same budget will provide therapy to additional 57 patients per year.

Conclusion. The results of the study demonstrated that acalabrutinib compared to ibrutinib for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/ refractory form of mantle cell lymphoma can reduce costs for the 1st year of therapy by 2,045,153,40 rubles (36.6%), and by 4,182,872,00 rubles (36.6%) for 3 years. Thus, acalabrutinib is the cost-saving option for previously treated adult patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma in the Russian Federation.

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