Cost-effectiveness of novel regimens for Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis C

Direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) have been approved for treating hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in China. However, they are substantially more expensive. The current analysis will investigate the cost-effectiveness of novel regimens compared with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PR) therapies for informing Chinese decision-makers.

A Markov model was developed to measure economic and health outcomes of novel regimens for genotype 1b, 2, 3, and 6 HCV infections compared with PR treatment. Clinical, cost, and utility inputs were gathered from published sources. Discounted quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), costs, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) are shown. The uncertainty was facilitated by one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

For genotype 1b HCV infection, the combination of paritaprevir, ritonavir, ombitasvir and dasabuvir was cost-saving compared with four competing alternatives. The ICERs of sofosbuvir plus ribavirin for genotypes 2 and 3 were lower than the threshold ($18,234/QALY). Among available strategies for patients with genotype 6, sofosbuvir in combination with ribavirin was the cost-saving alternative compared with PR. The results were robust to sensitivity analyses.

For both genotype 1b and 6 HCV infections in the context of Chinese patients, there were combinations of DAAs that were cost-saving compared with the usual PR treatment, and cost-effective for genotypes 2 and 3.