Budget impact analysis of pegfilgrastim biosimilar in the treatment of febrile neutropenia in Italy

Abstract

Introduction: Granulocyte-colony stimulating factors (G-CSFs) can significantly reduce the risk of febrile neutropenia (FN) among certain patients receiving chemotherapy. FN is associated with significant clinical and nonclinical complications. At present, the patent protection of pegfilgrastim (Neulasta®) has expired, and a biosimilar (Ziextenzo®) has been approved. Since the biosimilar price is expected to be lower as compared with the originator’s, the present Drug Budget Impact analysis tries to evaluate whether and how much profitable the biosimilar availability will be for the Italian NHS, in terms of cost containment (savings).Methods and Results: The model time horizon extends to five years. The initial overall number of treatments with pegfilgrastim is estimated based on the number of pegfilgrastim packages (assuming a recommended dose of 6 mg is administered after each cytotoxic chemotherapy) and kept constant in time. The model assumes that, year by year, the number of treatments with the originator will partly switch to the biosimilar (according to an uptake rate assumed). The results show that the availability of the biosimilar would provide an €6.4 million cumulated savings to the NHS in the five years.Conclusions: According to the present analysis, the availability of the biosimilar would generate cumulated savings (in five years) as high as €6.4 million for the Italian NHS.  (HTA & Market Access)