Hutton David, Newman-Casey Paula Anne, Tavag Mrinalini, Zacks David, Stein Joshua
David Hutton (
Paula Anne Newman-Casey is an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2014 Jun;33(6):931-9. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0832.
The biologic drugs bevacizumab and ranibizumab have revolutionized treatment of diabetic macular edema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration, leading causes of blindness. Ophthalmologic use of these drugs has increased and now accounts for roughly one-sixth of the Medicare Part B drug budget. The two drugs have similar efficacy and potentially minor differences in adverse-event rates; however, at $2,023 per dose, ranibizumab costs forty times more than bevacizumab. Using modeling methods, we predict ten-year (2010-20) population-level costs and health benefits of using bevacizumab and ranibizumab. Our results show that if all patients were treated with the less expensive bevacizumab instead of current usage patterns, savings would amount to $18 billion for Medicare Part B and nearly $5 billion for patients. With an additional $6 billion savings in other health care expenses, the total savings would be almost $29 billion. Altering patterns of use with these therapies by encouraging bevacizumab use and hastening approval of biosimilar therapies would dramatically reduce spending without substantially affecting patient outcomes.
生物药物贝伐单抗和雷珠单抗彻底改变了糖尿病性黄斑水肿和新生血管性年龄相关性黄斑变性(失明的主要原因)的治疗方法。这些药物在眼科领域的使用有所增加,目前约占医疗保险B部分药物预算的六分之一。这两种药物疗效相似,不良事件发生率可能存在细微差异;然而,雷珠单抗每剂2023美元,成本是贝伐单抗的40倍。我们使用建模方法预测了使用贝伐单抗和雷珠单抗的十年(2010 - 2020年)人群水平成本和健康效益。我们的结果表明,如果所有患者都使用成本较低的贝伐单抗而非当前的使用模式,医疗保险B部分将节省180亿美元,患者将节省近50亿美元。再加上其他医疗保健费用节省60亿美元,总节省金额将接近290亿美元。通过鼓励使用贝伐单抗和加快生物类似药疗法的批准来改变这些疗法的使用模式,将在不大幅影响患者治疗效果的情况下大幅减少支出。