Publications

This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of introducing tofacitinib, an oral Janus kinase inhibitor, to the treatment of Korean patients with RA and an inadequate response to conventional DMARDs. The model showed that the inclusion of tofacitinib as a treatment strategy for moderate to severe RA is cost-effective; this conclusion was considered robust based on multiple sensitivity analyses.First-line tofacitinib used before the standard of care (base-case analysis) increased both treatment costs and QALYs gained versus the standard-of-care treatment sequence. Tofacitinib also increased costs and QALYs gained when incorporated as a second-, third-, or fourth-line therapy. The inclusion of first-line tofacitinib increased the duration of active immunomodulatory therapy from9.4 to 13.2 years. Tofacitinib-associated increases in costs were attributable to the increased lifetime drug costs. Characteristics of the model cohort were based on those reported by the phase 3 ORAL Standard trial of tofacitinib or adalimumab versus placebo. The HAQ-DI scores were mapped onto utility values to calculate outcomes in terms of quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs)