Sun Xueshan, Zhen Xuemei, Gu Shuyan, Liu Kaijie, Yang Wenqianzi, Dong Hengjin
School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
School of Health Care Management, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res. 2025 Feb;25(2):245-256. doi: 10.1080/14737167.2024.2410973. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
To estimate the cost-utility of duloxetine compared with that of a placebo, common traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) from a Chinese healthcare perspective.
A Markov model was constructed. The costs and utility inputs were obtained from the database and published literature. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was the main model outputs. Subgroup analyses were also conducted for patients at high risk of gastrointestinal (GI) or cardiovascular (CV) AEs. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed.
The model estimated an ICER of $3409.21/QALY for duloxetine compared with etoricoxib, with duloxetine dominating other active treatment strategies in patients at a low risk of GI and CV AEs. The ICER for duloxetine over etoricoxib was $322.21/QALY in patients at high risk of GI and CV AEs. These results were consistent with the sensitivity analyses; 53.64% and 53.93% of the patients were willing to use duloxetine comparing with etoricoxib, for which the thresholds were 1.0 and 3.0 per capita gross domestic product (GDP), respectively.
Duloxetine is a valuable option for patients with OA; however, uncertainties exist in the model, and these suggestions can be adopted with caution.
