candesartan dominates losartan in
TRANSCRIPT
PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 668 - 8 Dec 2012
Candesartan dominates losartanin Sweden
Primary preventive treatment of hypertension withcandesartan dominates losartan, largely because oflower rates of cardiovascular complications, accordingto a cost-effectiveness analysis conducted from theperspective of the healthcare payer in Sweden.
A decision-analytic model was used to estimate costsand health outcomes over a patient’s lifetime. The base-case analysis assumed a patient age of 62 years and a4-year treatment duration with candesartan or losartan,the two most commonly prescribed angiotensinreceptor blockers in Sweden. In the first year of themodel, the acquisition cost of candesartan [Atacand]was about 10 times higher than that of generic losartan.Thereafter, it was assumed that generic versions of bothdrugs would be used at the same annual drug cost.
The model incorporated health outcomes data from arecent ‘real world’ clinical registry study that comparedthe two drugs in the primary preventive treatment ofhypertension in Sweden, as no head-to-headcomparison has been conducted in a randomised trial.
Candesartan was associated with a lower risk ofcardiovascular events, such as heart failure, myocardialinfarction and stroke. This translated into modest gainsin QALYs (0.053 for women and 0.057 for men) andreductions in total lifetime costs per patient (SEK4692*
for women and SEK4259 for men).* 2011 Swedish kronor
Granstrom O, et al. Cost-effectiveness of candesartan versus losartan in theprimary preventive treatment of hypertension. ClinicoEconomics and OutcomesResearch 4: 313-322, Nov 2012. Available from: URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CEOR.S35824 803079756
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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 8 Dec 2012 No. 6681173-5503/10/0668-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved