Background: The efficacy of combination therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C previously not responding to interferon monotherapy is lower than that in naive patients, and there has been no economic evaluation in this population.
Aim: To develop a cost-effectiveness analysis of therapeutic regimens with interferon-alpha and ribavirin in previous interferon non-responders.
Methods: A Markov simulation model was used to project the clinical and economic outcomes of five different therapeutic strategies, including a 'no treatment' alternative, using the health care system perspective. The efficacy data for the different doses and durations were obtained from a previously performed meta-analysis. A sensitivity analysis was performed to test the robustness of the model, analysing changes in different variables.
Results: Applying a 3% discount rate, the standard patient on combination therapy for 12 months showed increases of 0.80 years and 1.55 quality-adjusted life years, when compared with the 'no treatment' strategy. This option led to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of 11,767 euros per year of life gained and 6073 euros per quality-adjusted life year.
Conclusions: Combination therapy with interferon plus ribavirin is cost-effective in previous interferon non-responders and is within the range of some well-accepted medical interventions in our health care system.