The health economics of insulin therapy: How do we address the rising demands, costs, inequalities and barriers to achieving optimal outcomes

Abstract

The health economic value of insulin is usually expressed within a cost-effectiveness framework providing an estimated incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Insulin clinical trials adopt a treat-to-target design in which both intervention and control arms aim to achieve similar levels of glycaemic control thereby allowing a comparison of secondary safety outcomes such as hypoglycaemia and weight gain. While of use to inform clinicians about the new insulin's tolerability, it is of limited use for an economic evaluation. An insulin's true potential value requires an assessment of the relationship between the benefits of attaining individualised glycaemic goals versus the factors known to act as barriers to the initiation/intensification of insulin and that also contribute to poor adherence in clinical practice. Addressing the rising demands that diabetes will impose upon the healthcare system will require the simultaneous execution of multiple strategies that acknowledge population dynamics, healthcare delivery constraints, the role of innovation and funding requirements. Accounting for patient-specific characteristics to develop individualised plans and utilising technologies that address relevant barriers to care will require a whole-system perspective on healthcare value and an appreciation of the interconnectivity of stakeholder needs. Importantly, convenience and treatment satisfaction are often not considered valuable features of insulin therapy; not only do they have value, but they are essential to addressing rising demands.

Plain Language Summary

More people around the world are living with diabetes. This is because people are living longer, populations are getting older, and more people are developing the disease. Clinicians will have to prescribe insulin for more people. To make well-informed decisions about how to spend money on diabetes care, we need to understand how much therapies costs and how well they work. In healthcare, people often talk about “value for money.” This means getting better results without spending more money, or saving money without making things worse.

However, it's not always easy to figure out the value of new types of insulin. The way insulin is studied in clinical trials doesn’t always relate well to how it works, and is used, in real-life clinical practice. Many studies don’t look at all the things that matter, like how easy it is for people to use the insulin or how it affects their daily lives.

When two types of insulin have comparable efficacy in terms of lowering blood sugar, other things — like side effects, how easy it is to use, and how well people stick to their treatment — become important drivers of value. These things are different for each person, may be left out of studies and may not considered to be important by decision makers.

In this paper, we first discuss how the health economics of insulin has traditionally been studied, and look at the findings, advantages and disadvantages of these approaches. We also describe how tools like continuous glucose monitors (which track blood sugar all the time) can help people improve outcomes.

We introduce what we call the “insulin value system.” This looks at how the features of the insulin, the patient's circumstances, and the state of the healthcare system interact to determine the value of a new therapy. In the case of insulin therapies, traditional approaches to value assessment don’t always capture the full picture.

Our second goal is to talk about the big challenges in diabetes care, for which there are no easy solutions. More people are getting diabetes, and more money will be needed for treatment and disease management. We believe that to really help make a difference, we need to consider the whole healthcare system, how everything is connected, and not just focus on one part. We believe it's important to look at how people live and work, their personal circumstances and how they and the healthcare system interact when assessing the value of insulin. That way, we can better understand how new treatments can help both people and the wider healthcare system.