Use of health resources and costs associated to first-line antiretroviral therapy in the era of integrase inhibitors

Abstract

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the usage of health resources and the associated costs during the first year of treatment with the most commonly used first-line antiretroviral regimens (ART) in the Cohort of the Spanish AIDS Research Network in the era of integrase inhibitors. Methods: We used a cost evaluation model in which the use of health resources derived from initiating a regimen was estimated using a two-round Delphi method with a structured questionnaire in a pannel of 35 HIV experts. The cost of initiating a regimen included the costs of ART, clinical management and management of adverse effects (AE). The payer perspective (National Health System) was applied. Thus, only direct costs were considered. Results: In an intention-to-treat analysis, the annual cost ranged from 8,501 (sic) for TDF/FTC/EFV to 12,840 (sic) for TDF / FTC + RAL. On average, the pharmacological cost accounts for 87.6% varying between 83.8% for TDF/FTC/EFV and 91.1% for TDF/FTC+RAL. The cost of clinical management accounts for 11.5% of the total cost, ranging from 8.6% for TDF/FTC+RAL and 13.9% for ABC / 3TC / DTG. Only 0.9% of the total cost is due to management of AE, higher with the use of TDF/FTC/EFV (2.6%) and TDF/FTC+DRV / r (1.1%). Conclusion: The cost for the health system of the first year of antiretroviral treatment is mainly driven by the price of drugs. The regimens with lowest total cost were TDF/FTC/EFV, TDF/FTC/RPV and ABC/3TC/DTG, and the ones with highest total cost were TDF/FTC/EVG/COBI and TDF/FTC+RAL.