Jason Foo,1 Mohamad Maghnie,2 Annamaria Colao,3 Ioanna Vlachaki,4 Giorgio Colombo5,61Global Health Economics, Mapi Group (An ICON plc Company), Houten, The Netherlands; 2Department of Pediatrics, IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini Institute, University of Genova, Genova, here Italy; 3Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University Federico II of Naples, 80131 Napoli, Italy; 4Global Health Economics, ICON plc, London, UK; 5Department of Drug Science, Pavia University, Pavia, Italy; 6SAVE Studi – Health Economics & Outcomes Research, Milan, ItalyCorrespondence: Jason FooGlobal Health Economics, Mapi Group (An ICON PLC Company), De Molen 84, Houten 3995 AX, The NetherlandsEmail [email protected]: The objective of this analysis was to evaluate the cost-consequence of recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) administered via the easypod auto-injector (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) versus conventional devices in children with growth hormone deficiency in Italy.Methods: A patient-level simulation, decision-analytical model was developed to estimate the average height gains and growth hormone treatment costs for a cohort of boys and girls until their bone maturation age.
The calculations were performed using listed growth hormone drug prices (base case) and a scenario analysis was also conducted using published tender prices.Costs were discounted at 3%.Results: Due to improved adherence and earlier identification of poor responders, patients receiving somatropin with easypod gained, on average, 3.
2 cm more than patients receiving other r-hGH treatments.Somatropin with easypod had the second highest total cost including wastage (€96,710), but had the second lowest cost per cm gained (€7699/cm).In the scenario analysis, somatropin with easypod had the lowest cost per cm gained (€4708/cm) amongst all of the compared treatments.
Conclusion: Somatropin with sequal eclipse 5 battery easypod can be cost-saving versus all other r-hGH treatments except Omnitrope when listed drug prices are considered and can be cost-saving versus all other r-hGH treatments when tender drug prices are considered.The easypod device also facilitates cost savings in terms of reduced wastage.Keywords: easypod, growth hormone treatment, growth hormone deficiency, cost-consequence analysis.