Cost-effectiveness of Upadacitinib vs. Tofacitinib for moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis in China.

Background: Patients with moderate-to-severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China experience multi-system dysfunction, resulting in a substantial economic burden. This study aimed to compare the cost-effectiveness of Upadacitinib and Tofacitinib as treatment options for moderate-to-severe RA patients in China.

Materials and methods: A Decision Tree-Markov model with a 24-week cycle was constructed, simulating health status transitions based on the tsDMARDs-TNFi-PC clinical pathway. The analysis included the calculation of treatment costs (yuan) and QALYs (quality-adjusted life-years) for the Upadacitinib and Tofacitinib groups. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated using the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) and compared against a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold. One-way sensitivity analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) were conducted to verify the robustness of the results.

Results: Compared with Tofacitinib, the Upadacitinib group incurred an additional cost of 1,375 yuan per patient, with an incremental gain of 0.17 QALYs. The ICER was 7,880.38 yuan/QALY, which is well below the WTP threshold of 1.5 times China's GDP per capita, indicating favorable cost-effectiveness.

Conclusions: In the context of China's healthcare system, Upadacitinib represents a cost-effective long-term first-line treatment option for moderate-to-severe RA patients.