Cost-effectiveness of memantine compared with standard care in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer disease in Canada.
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing the addition of memantine to standard care (that is, without acetylcholinesterase inhibitors) with standard care alone in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer disease (AD) in Canada.


METHODS
A 2-year Markov model estimated clinical effects in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and time in complete dependence as well as societal costs in four 6-month cycles. Health states were defined by AD severity assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (moderate = 10 to 19; severe < 10), by level of dependence in activities of daily living, and by death. Transition probabilities were estimated by combining data of patients with moderate-to-severe AD from all relevant clinical trials. QALYs were estimated from a UK epidemiologic study. The initial distribution and use of medical and support services for each health state was obtained from the Canadian Study on Health and Aging with current estimates of frequency of use and unit prices applied.


RESULTS
Compared with standard care, the memantine strategy saved more than 1 month of complete dependence and produced 0.03 additional QALYs, with no additional cost. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses give an 83.3% chance that memantine treatment is cost-neutral, an 89.5% chance of its being cost-effective if the decision maker is willing to pay $20 000 for a QALY, and a 96.2% chance with a willingness to pay $100 000 per QALY. Robustness of results was confirmed through 1-way and scenario-based sensitivity analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Our evaluation found that memantine monotherapy produced relevant health benefit, compared with standard care alone, with no additional costs. Results are consistent with other economic evaluations of memantine conducted in Europe and the United States.
Gagnon
Micheline
M
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Rive
Benoît
B
Hux
Margaret
M
Guilhaume
Chantal
C
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy*; D002170:Canada; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D015259:Dopamine Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D008559:Memantine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005791:Patient Care / Q000191:economics*; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years
D015259:Dopamine Agents; D008559:Memantine