Cost-effectiveness comparison of Genechip and conventional drug susceptibility test for detecting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in China.
BACKGROUND
Genechip (CapitalBio, Beijing, China) is a system for diagnosing resistance to rifampin and isoniazid, which shows high efficiency in detecting drug-resistant tuberculosis. Here, we firstly evaluated the costs of Genechip for detecting the drug susceptibility of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, compared to conventional drug susceptibility test (DST) in laboratories in China.


RESULTS
Data on the costs of the two tests were collected at four hospitals. Costs were calculated using the essential factor cost calculation method. The costs of diagnosing a single case of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) using Genechip and DST were US$22.38 and $53.03, respectively. Taking into account the effect on costs from failure of a certain number of tests to accurately diagnose MDR-TB, the costs of Genechip and DST increased by 17.65% and 5.22%, respectively. The cost of both tests decreased with the increasing prevalence of MDR-TB disease, and the cost of Genechip at a sensitivity of more than 50% was lower than that of DST. When price of Genechip was varied to 50%, 80%, 150%, and 200% of the original price, the cost of Genechip at sensitivities of more than 30%, 40%, 60%, and 70%, respectively, was also lower than that of DST.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that Genechip was a more cost-effective method of diagnosing MDR-TB compared to conventional DST.
Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
Yu
Y
Pang
Qiang
Q
Li
Xichao
X
Ou
Hojoon
H
Sohn
Zhiying
Z
Zhang
Junchen
J
Li
Hui
H
Xia
Kai Man
KM
Kam
Richard J
RJ
O'Brien
Junying
J
Chi
Shitong
S
Huan
Daniel P
DP
Chin
Yan-lin
YL
Zhao
D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology