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Cost-Effectiveness of PD-1 Inhibitor Pembrolizumab
J Med Econ; ePub 2016 Aug 29; Huang, Lou, et al
Pembrolizumab improved survival and increased quality of life years (QALY) in a partitioned-survival model using data from patients from the KEYNOTE 010 clinical trial.
Participants—all with non-small cell lung cancer—were PD-L1 positive and had been pre-treated. Investigators estimated progression-free and overall survival in patients treated with either pembrolizumab 2mg/kg or docetaxel 75mg/m2, using a time horizon of 20 years. Among the results:
• An average survival time of 2.25 years was estimated with pembrolizumab, vs ~1 year with docetaxel.
• Expected QALYs were 1.71 and 0.76 for pembrolizumab and docetaxel, respectively.
• The incremental cost gained with pembrolizumab was nearly $170,000/QALY.
• Sensitivity analyses showed results were most sensitive to extrapolation of overall survival.
Citation: Huang M, Lou Y, Pellissier J, et al. Cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab versus docetaxel for the treatment of previously treated PD-L1 positive advanced NSCLC patients in the United States. [Published online ahead of print August 29, 2016]. J Med Econ. doi:10.1080/13696998.2016.1230123.