The Budget Impact of Including Rucaparib on a US Payer Formulary for the Treatment of Patients with Metastatic Ovarian Cancer.

objectiveA budget impact model was constructed to assess the incremental budget impact that rucaparib availability would have on a US health plan.

methodsAn incremental budget impact was estimated over a 3-year horizon as the difference in total annual cost of treatment, with and without rucaparib available, for second-line maintenance, third-line treatment, and the combined maintenance and treatment settings. The hypothetical health plan includes one million covered lives, and commercial and Medicare lines of business. Alternative products included in the model were based on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. The eligible patient population was estimated using an incidence-based approach. Modeled costs include drug acquisition, intravenous drug administration, required laboratory testing, and medical management of adverse events.

resultsIn the maintenance setting, average total expenditures over 3 years were estimated to be US$1,465,043 with rucaparib versus US$1,461,350 without it as a treatment option; the average incremental budget impact was US$3693 (US$0.0003 per member per month [PMPM]). In the treatment setting, average total expenditures were estimated to be US$1,320,718 with rucaparib versus US$1,313,736 without it; the average incremental budget impact was US$6982 (US$0.0006 PMPM). Budget impact is smaller in commercial plans than Medicare because of the higher incidence of ovarian cancer in the over-65 population.

conclusionThe budget impact of adding rucaparib to the formulary for a health plan adds negligible PMPM costs of < US$0.001 in all tested settings and scenarios due to the small population eligible for therapy.