To assess the cost-effectiveness of reimbursing infliximab for moderate-to-severe Crohn's disease (MS-CD) in China from the perspective of public insurance payers.
A decision-analytic model with a lifetime time horizon was constructed to simulate the disease progression and direct medical costs in Chinese MS-CD patients under two scenarios: reimbursing infliximab vs. not reimbursing infliximab. A cross-sectional study and literature review were conducted to estimate model variables. The constructed decision-analytic model ran the base case, one-way sensitivity, and probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA) to assess the cost-effectiveness of reimbursing infliximab using reimbursed medical costs.
Base case analysis discounting health benefits and costs estimated that reimbursing infliximab could increase overall survival by 0.604 years, increase total quality-adjusted life years (QALY) by 0.697 QALY, reduce absolute lifetime surgery risk by 13.1%, and increase reimbursed costs by ¥29,409. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per gained additional QALY (ICER) based on discounted health benefits and reimbursed medical costs (3% per year) was ¥42,198. The one-way sensitivity analyses identified that the cost-effectiveness of reimbursing infliximab for MS-CD was mainly driven by the treatment efficacies of maintenance therapy, quality of life, and unit price of infliximab. PSA estimated that reimbursing infliximab was associated with a 63.8% chance to be cost-effective under the willingness-to-pay of the 2018 Chinese gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC).
Reimbursing infliximab for MS-CD in Chinese patients was highly attractive, costing Chinese public insurance payers less than the 2018 Chinese GDPPC to gain 1 QALY.