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Boceprevir-based regimens bested standard therapy in prediction model
Boceprevir-based regimens, compared with a standard therapy regimen, were more cost-effective, significantly reduced the lifetime incidence for liver complications and were associated with an increased quality of life among treatment-naive patients with chronic hepatitis C genotype-1 infection, according to results of a prediction model.
As previously reported in Infectious Disease News, results from the SPRINT-2 trial indicated that fixed-duration therapy of boceprevir (Victrelis, Schering) plus peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin, as well as response-guided therapy, significantly increased sustained virologic response rates vs. treatment with standard peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin therapy alone among previously untreated adults with chronic HCV genotype-1.
For the current study, in which findings were presented at The Liver Meeting, the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, researchers used a prediction model to assess the cost-effectiveness and quality-adjusted life years of boceprevir plus response-guided therapy regimen and a boceprevir plus peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin regimen vs. the standard therapy regimen among adults included in the SPRINT-2 trial.
A 41% and 46% predicted decrease in the lifetime incidence for liver complications was observed among adults randomly assigned to a boceprevir plus response-guided therapy regimen and a boceprevir plus peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin regimen, respectively.
In addition, the researchers predicted an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $24,017 for a boceprevir plus response-guided therapy regimen and $39,733 for a boceprevir plus peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin regimen.
For more information:
- Ferrante SA. #929. Presented at: 2011 AASLD Annual Meeting; Nov. 3-8; San Francisco.
Just like HIV medicines, the new HCV drugs are likely to be extremely cost-effective and to have a major impact on saving lives. In a recent presentation by Mark Sulkowski, MD, at the 2011 IDSA meeting in Boston, Sulkowski described preliminary results of an ongoing clinical trial in which boceprevir-based therapy also appeared promising in HCV/HIV-coinfected patients.
- Rajesh T. Gandhi, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Disclosure: Dr. Gandhi reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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