Dr Andre Lamy Discusses Cost Savings Seen in the COMPASS Trial

The outcomes in the COMPASS trial of rivaroxaban to treat patients with peripheral artery disease have been very positive, and a new analysis has looked at the cost impact of bringing the drug to market, explained Andre Lamy, MD, MHSc, FRSC, a cardiac surgeon with the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Transcript

What were the findings from your analysis of cost savings seen in the COMPASS trial? What analysis is coming next?

With the COMPASS trial, it involves rivaroxaban, 2.5 mg BID (twice a day) with aspirin, vs aspirin, which is aspirin alone. The primary outcome for (reduction) in death, myocardial infarction and stroke is very positive, so we’re doing an economic analysis to look at the cost impact of bringing that new drug on the market.

The drug is not currently available in North America. It will be, probably, within a year. The cost is still unknown of that drug—in 6 to 12 months we’ll know the cost of that drug. In terms of reduction of cardiovascular events, with the drug, 2.5 mg BID of rivaroxaban, there was a massive savings during the trial of around $6 million. If you divide that by the number of participants, it’s a savings of about $680 per person.

In the subgroups, with the patients with peripheral artery disease, who are much more at risk, the savings were twice that—about $1200 to $1300. So, it’s a cost impact. What we don’t have so far is the quality of life and also how many life-years saved. It’s a long process—you need to be able to model to study that, to determine how many lives will be saved with rivaroxaban vs aspirin when you do a lifetime analysis. We’re working on that. It will probably take another 4-6 months before we can publish that.