Roche's Copegus/Pegasys "cost effective," study

Swiss drug major Roche says that interim results from a study investigating the cost-effectiveness of treating US patients who have mild chronic hepatitis C using Pegasys (peginterferon alpha- 2a) plus Copegus (ribavirin) were positive.

The study, which was presented at the annual Digestive Disease Week conference in Los Angeles, USA, used data from two Phase III multinational, randomized, controlled trials of hepatitis C patients with genotype 1 and mild CHC who were treated with Pegasys 180mcg plus ribavirin 1000/1200mg/day and the overall sustained virologic response of this group was 56%.

Compared with no treatment, in HCV genotype-1 patients with mild CHC, the authors conclude that Pegasys/ribavirin is a cost-effective strategy in the US setting, noting that it increased quality-adjusted life expectancy by 1.46 years, yielding an incremental cost per QALY gained of $3,513.