Cost per SVR with Harvoni lower than previously utilized regimens

SAN DIEGO — Researchers determined that the cost per sustained virologic response with Harvoni for treating chronic hepatitis C genotype 1 was much lower than the cost reported for previous regimens, according to data presented at Digestive Disease Week 2016.

“The treatment of chronic hepatitis C has evolved rapidly from regimens with relatively low sustained virologic response rates with significant and costly side effects to new regimens with high SVR rates and few side effects,” Lisa M. Nyberg, MD, gastroenterologist at Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center, said during a presentation. “Side effects of the previous regimens frequently included significant anemia, sometimes requiring transfusion and at times hepatic decompensation and other events requiring hospitalization.”

Previous regimens such as telaprevir have been associated with a $189,000 cost per SVR, according to the abstract. However, newer regimens are better tolerated and may not lead to costly side effects.

Therefore, researchers sought to determine the price of Harvoni (sofosbuvir/ledipasvir, Gilead Sciences) with or without ribavirin using detailed cost-mapping. The retrospective cohort study comprised 1,262 adult patients (mean age, 58.7 years; 64% men) treated at Kaiser Permanente Southern California between 2014 and 2015.

Researchers found that the average cost per SVR was $75,502 for patients without cirrhosis and $100,518 for patients with cirrhosis.

These results included the total inpatient and outpatient costs associated with all medical care given to each patient, according to the abstract.

“I think another strength of this study is that it was done at Kaiser Permanente,” Nyberg said. “We have absolutely no restrictions on who we may treat. It's all according to clinical judgment. And, we treat all comers with hepatitis C, irrespective of stage of disease. So, this is a large sample in a real world population with clinicians doing what they feel is clinically indicated.” – by Will Offit

Reference:

Nyberg LM, et al. Abstract #232. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 21-24, 2016; San Diego.

Disclosure: Lisa M. Nyberg, MD, reports receiving financial benefit from Gilead Sciences, AbbVie and Merck. Please visit http://www.ddw.org/DDW_Disclosure_Index.pdf for a list of all other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.