(155) Cost-effectiveness analysis of somapacitan-beco versus somatropin in the treatment of patients with pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD) in the United States

Background: : Growth hormone therapy is a critical intervention for patients with GHD that impacts clinical outcomes and overall costs. Pediatric GHD can be treated with an established once-daily GH (somatropin) or with a once-weekly GH such as the recently approved somapacitan-beco. Hence, there is a need to assess the economic impact of somapacitan-beco compared to established somatropin.

Objective: : The objective of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of somapacitan-beco versus somatropin in the treatment of pediatric GHD in the United States (US).

Methods: : A Markov model was developed to evaluate the costs and clinical outcomes of somapacitan-beco relative to somatropin in the treatment of pediatric GHD. Model inputs, including drug efficacy, drug acquisition costs, and utility values were estimated from publicly available data and literature. Drug acquisition costs for somatropin were based on Omnitrope®. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated as the cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained from a US payer perspective. Further, various scenarios for improvement of adherence rate of once-weekly GH vs once-daily GH were developed to assess the impact of adherence on somapacitan-beco cost effectiveness.

Results: : The use of somapacitan-beco compared to somatropin resulted in an additional 0.21 incremental QALYs and $422,088 incremental costs with an ICER of ~$1.98M (million) per QALY gained in the base case. While somapacitan-beco had a slight drug administration-related utility
gain, it was associated with marginal lower effectiveness in terms of maximum height gain and substantially higher drug acquisition costs compared to somatropin. Scenario outcomes for the improvement of adherence rate of once-weekly GH vs once-daily GH, estimated that Somapacitan-beco ICER ranges between $0.6M to $2.08M per QALY gain against somatropin.

Conclusions: : Compared to somatropin, somapacitan-beco does not seems to be a cost-effective option for the treatment of pediatric GHD, even when considering adherence differences. The resulting ICER for somapacitan-beco was greater than ten times the commonly accepted willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of $150,000 per QALY.

Sponsorship:: Sandoz Inc (Omnitrope® is a product of Sandoz)