Remdesivir Cost-Effective for Treating Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19

Remdesivir plus standard of care (SOC) is cost-effective compared to SOC alone for patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in the United States, according to a recent analysis published in Infectious Diseases and Therapy.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health care systems globally, impacting staffing, supplies, and space,” researchers said. “In the context of increasingly constrained health care resources, the relative value of treatments needs to be considered.”

Using national epidemiological data from 2022 as well as a recent retrospective cohort study of patients from the Premier Healthcare Database, researchers populated patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 in an economic model. 

“Based on surveillance data, a hospitalization rate of 10% was applied to the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, recognizing that this rate may differ based on the evolving virus,” researchers noted.

Patients were entered into a decision tree model and categorized according to their health status at baseline using the World Health Organization ordinal score. From there, the model accounted for changes in health and resource utilization through day 15; at day 29, patients were assumed to be deceased or discharged. After day 29, patients entered a Markov model that was subject to age- and sex-adjusted mortality but did not account for long COVID-19 symptoms due to limited information on treatment efficacy over time.

The model accounted for both direct and indirect costs, including a productivity loss cost based on the average hourly wage in the United States. Researchers reported costs in 2021 US dollars. 

According to the model, treatment with remdesivir plus SOC resulted in 4 fewer hospitalized days compared to SOC alone. This included 2 general ward days, 1 day in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 1 day in ICU with invasive mechanical ventilation.

Remdesivir plus SOC was also associated with 0.90 life years and 0.72 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, with total costs of $24,382. By comparison, SOC alone yielded 0.83 life years, 0.66 QALYs, and $31,015 in total costs. 

“This model found that [remdesivir] + SOC is a cost-effective treatment for hospitalized patients with COVID-19, both reducing the disease burden of patients and representing good value for health systems,” researchers concluded.

Reference:
Barnieh L, Beckerman R, Jeyakumar S, Hsiao A, Jarrett J, Gottlieb RL. Remdesivir for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the United States: Optimization of health care resources. Infect Dis Ther. 2023;12(6):1655-1665. doi:10.1007/s40121-023-00816-y