Vellopoulou K., Stefanou G., Tzanetakos C., Boubouchairopoulou N., Nakou M., Gourzoulidis G., Kourlaba G. European journal of gastroenterology & hepatology vol. 33,3 (March 2021): 325-333. https://doi.org/10.1097/MEG.0000000000001916

Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of tofacitinib versus other treatment options currently available for the management of adult patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, who have had an inadequate response, loss of response, or were intolerant to conventional therapy or a biologic agent, in Greece.

Methods: A Markov model was adapted for projecting lifetime costs and outcomes, for a cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis from a Greek payer perspective. Patients entered the model in the active ulcerative colitis state and transitioned to a remission or response state or they underwent colectomy. Following an initial 8-week induction treatment period, patients received maintenance therapy until loss of response. Nonresponders could switch to up to two subsequent biologic lines. Clinical efficacy, adverse event rates and utilities derived from OCTAVE trials and a network-meta-analysis (NMA), while adverse event-related disutilities were obtained from the literature. Information on treatment pathways and resource use was provided by an advisory board due to a lack of local data. Unit costs derived from official national sources (€, 2018).

Results: Over a life-time horizon, treating moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis with tofacitinib resulted in additional quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and lower total costs compared to vedolizumab (0.018; €6408), infliximab (biosimilar) (0.009; €3031), golimumab (0.042; €1988) and infliximab (originator) (0.009; €6724). Hence, tofacitinib was estimated to be dominant over all comparators.

Conclusion: The results of the analysis suggest that in the Greek setting, tofacitinib could be considered a cost-effective (dominant) treatment option for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis.