title: Cost-effectiveness of entecavir versus adefovir for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B in patients with decompensated cirrhosis from a third-party US payer perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Decompensated cirrhosis is a serious clinical complication of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) that places a large economic burden on the US health care system. Although entecavir has been shown to improve health outcomes in a cost-effective manner in mixed populations of CHB patients, the cost-effectiveness of entecavir has not been evaluated in CHB patients with decompensated cirrhosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of entecavir versus adefovir, from a US payer perspective, in CHB patients with decompensated cirrhosis, using a health-state transition Markov model with four health states: hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), HCC-free survival, post-liver transplant, and death. The model considered a hypothetical patient population similar to that included in a randomized controlled trial in the target population (ETV-048): predominantly male (74%), Asian (54%), mean age 52 years, hepatic decompensation (Child-Pugh score ≥ seven), hepatitis B e antigen-positive or -negative, treatment-naïve or lamivudine-experienced, and no liver transplant history. Clinical inputs were based on cumulative safety results for ETV-048 and published literature. Costs were obtained from published literature. Costs and outcomes were discounted at 3% per annum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For 1000 patients over a 3-year time horizon, predicted overall survival and HCC-free survival were longer with entecavir than with adefovir (2.35 versus 2.30 years and 2.11 versus 2.03 years, respectively). Predicted total health care costs were $889 lower with entecavir than with adefovir ($91,878 versus $92,768). For incremental cost/life-year gained and incremental cost/HCC-free-year gained, entecavir was less costly and more effective than adefovir. Sensitivity analyses found the results to be robust to plausible variations in health-state costs and discount rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis suggests that entecavir improves survival outcomes in a cost-saving manner compared with adefovir in CHB patients with hepatic decompensation.
authors.affiliation: John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA.
authors.forename: Naoky
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authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Lennox
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authors.lastname: Jeffers
authors.forename: Lael
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authors.lastname: Cragin
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: Wenqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rosenblatt
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Tony
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authors.lastname: Hebden
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Juday