Exploratory analysis of the economically justifiable price of reslizumab for asthma severe in Colombia.

Introduction: Asthma severe imposes important economic burden for health systems, especially with the incorporation of new drugs. Recently, reslizumab has been approved to prevent exacerbations in patients with eosinophilic asthma. This study evaluates the price at which reslizumab would be considered economically justified for patients with severe asthma in Colombia.

Materials and methods: A model was developed using the microsimulation to estimate the quality-adjusted costs and life years of two interventions: reslizumab versus not applying standard treatment without reslizumab. This analysis was made during a time horizon of 50 year and from a third payer perspective.

Results: Based on thresholds of U$4828, U$ 5128, and U$19 992 per QALY evaluated in this study, we established economically justifiable drug acquisition prices at each WTP were U$ 106, U$ 165, and U$ 349 per dose of reslizumab. Reslizumab not was cost-effective using a WTP of U$4828, U$ 5128 and U$19 992 per QALY.

Conclusion: The economically justifiable cost for reslizumab in Colombia is between U106 to U$349per dose, depending on the WTP used to decide its implementation. This result should encourage more studies in the region that optimize decision-making processes when incorporating this drug into the health plans of each country.