Cost-utility Analysis of Tripterygium Glycosides Tablets Combined with Methotrexate in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

OBJECTIVE  To explore the cost-effectiveness of tripterygium glycosides tablets combined with methotrexate compared to triple therapy(methotrexate+sulfasalazine+hydroxychloroquine) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis for whom inadequately responing to methotrexate.

METHODS  A microsimulation Markov model was applied from the Chinese health-care system perspective. The model cycle was 6 months, the simulated time range was lifetime, and the main outcome were total cost and quality-adjusted life years(QALY). The analysis was conducted by cost-utility analysis. To ensure the robustness of the model, one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the model uncertainty.

RESULTS  The base-case analysis demonstrated that compared with the triple therapy, tripterygium glycosides tablets combined with methotrexate was dominated, resulting in a cost-saving of ¥6438.17 and incremental QALYs of 0.18. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses showed that the results to be robust.

CONCLUSION Based on the above results, from the Chinese health-care system perspective, tripterygium glycosides tablets combined with methotrexate is cost-effective compared to triple therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritisfor whom inadequately responing to methotrexate.