Evaluation of medical costs avoided when new oral anticoagulants are used for extended treatment of venous thromboembolism based on clinical trial results.

This study evaluated avoidances in medical costs associated with clinical endpoints from randomized clinical trials that evaluated the efficacy and safety of the new oral anticoagulants (NOACs), dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban for extended treatment of patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE). Event rates of efficacy and safety endpoints from the clinical trials (RE-SONATE, EINSTEIN-EXT, and AMPLIFY-EXT) were obtained from published literature. Incremental annual medical costs among patients with clinical events from a US payer perspective were obtained from the literature or healthcare claims databases and inflation adjusted to 2013 costs. Differences in total medical costs associated with clinical endpoints for patients treated with NOACs versus placebo were then estimated. One-way univariate and Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses were additionally carried out. In all three NOAC trials lower rates of recurrent VTE occurred with NOAC use versus placebo. As a result of the reduction in VTE recurrence the overall medical costs avoided were -$2,794, -$2,948, -$4,249, and -$4,244 for VTE patients treated with dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban 2.5 mg, and apixaban 5 mg respectively versus patients treated with placebo. Apixaban was associated with the greatest avoidance in medical costs, which was driven mainly by a greater reduced rate in recurrent VTE than other NOACs versus placebo and also a reduction in major bleeding rate. Further evaluation is needed to validate these results in the real-world setting.