title: Budget impact analysis of boceprevir and telaprevir for the treatment of hepatitis C genotype 1 infection.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Boceprevir and telaprevir have recently showed dramatically better treatment outcomes than conventional PEGylated interferon plus ribavirin for the treatment of hepatitis C virus genotype 1, but the average cost per patient is unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the UK context, we performed a budget impact analysis to estimate the average per patient cost of adding boceprevir or telaprevir to PEGylated interferon plus ribavirin therapy. We considered both standard-duration therapy and response-guided therapy regimens of boceprevir and telaprevir for treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients. Our model utilized monthly discontinuation rates. We built a Bayesian Markov model to account for uncertainty associated with the clinical input and cost data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total average cost of response-guided therapy with boceprevir is £22,850 and £25,060 for treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients, respectively. By comparison, the total average cost of response-guided therapy with telaprevir was £29,930 and £31,880 for treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced patients, respectively, whereas the total average cost of standard-duration boceprevir is £34,680 and £34,350 and for telaprevir was £32,530 and £31,680 for treatment-naïve and treatment experienced patients, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that response-guided therapy with boceprevir is notably less costly than response-guided therapy with telaprevir. Our results also suggest that the standard treatment duration of boceprevir is slightly more costly than the standard treatment duration of telaprevir.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton.
authors.forename: Kristian
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorlund
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Druyts
authors.forename: Antoine C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: El Khoury
authors.forename: Edward J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Mills