Cost-Effectiveness of Scheduled Maintenance Treatment with Infliximab for Pediatric Crohn's Disease

ABSTRACTBackgroundInfliximab recently became the only biologic approved for use in pediatric patients with severe active Crohn's disease (CD).ObjectivesTo estimate the cost-effectiveness of scheduled maintenance treatment with infliximab compared with standard care in children suffering from severe active CD over 5 years from the UK National Health Service perspective.MethodsA Markov model was constructed to simulate the progression of a hypothetical cohort of CD children through predefined health states on scheduled maintenance treatment with infliximab (5 mg/kg). The data to populate the model came from infliximab trials from Targan et al., ACCENT I, and REACH. The health states included in the model were remission, responding active disease, nonresponding active disease, surgery, postsurgery remission, postsurgery complications, and death. Standard care, comprising immunomodulators, and/or corticosteroids were used as a comparator. The primary outcome was quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) estimated using the EuroQol (EQ-5D) from a European CD population. To account for the weight-based dosing of infliximab, a baseline patient weight of 40 kg that increased by 5 kg/year up to 60 kg was used. The costs and outcomes were discounted at 3.5% over a period of 5 years. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed by varying the infliximab efficacy estimates, costs, and utilities.ResultsThe incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) for infliximab treatment was £14,607 compared with standard care. The sensitivity analyses revealed the treatment effect of infliximab to be the most influential parameter with ICERs ranging from £10,480 to £37,017. Assuming a willingness to pay of £30,000 per QALY, the probability of infliximab being cost-effective is 78.6%.ConclusionScheduled maintenance treatment with infliximab (5 mg/kg) is likely to be a cost-effective treatment in children suffering from severe active CD under an 8-week maintenance program.