Estimation of Intangible Costs for Factors Associated with Oral Antiviral Drugs for COVID-19 Treatment: A Conjoint Analysis in Japan.

INTRODUCTION: During the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, preferences for factors associated with vaccines have been evaluated. Three oral antiviral drugs have been approved in Japan for patients with mild-to-moderate I COVID-19 symptoms. Although preferences for the drugs may also depend on various factors, these have not been fully evaluated. METHODS: A conjoint analysis was performed based on an online survey in August 2022 to estimate the intangible costs of factors associated with oral antiviral drugs for COVID-19. Respondents were individuals aged 20-69 across Japan. The attributes included the company (Japanese/foreign) that developed the drug, formulation and size of the drug, frequency of administration per day, number of tablets/capsules per dose, number of days until no longer infectious to others, and out-of-pocket expenses. A logistic regression model was applied to estimate the utility of each level for each attribute. The intangible costs were calculated by comparing the utility to the out-of-pocket attribute. RESULTS: Responses were collected from 11,303 participants. The difference between levels was the largest for companies that developed a drug; the intangible costs were JPY 5390 higher for the foreign company than for the Japanese company. The next largest difference was in the number of days until one is no longer infectious. For the same formulation, the intangible cost was lower for small sizes than large sizes. For similar-sized tablets and capsules, the intangible cost was lower for tablets than capsules. These tendencies were similar regardless of COVID-19 infection history and the presence of risk factors for severe COVID-19 in the respondents. CONCLUSION: Intangible costs for factors associated with oral antiviral drugs among the Japanese population were estimated. The results may change as the number of people with a history of COVID-19 infection increases and significant progress is made regarding treatments.

Comparison of Inconvenience Costs Between Influenza Antivirals for Japanese Pediatric Patients: A Conjoint Analysis of Parental Responses.

INTRODUCTION: Certain drug characteristics, including dosage and form, are associated with either convenience or inconvenience for the patients taking them, and any inconvenience can be considered as a "cost" in disease treatment. Multiple antivirals are available for influenza in Japan, with various dosages and forms. This study evaluated the inconvenience costs associated with influenza antivirals for pediatric patients by using conjoint analysis on responses from their parents. METHODS: An online survey (May 2021) was conducted for parents whose child took antivirals for influenza at 6-11 years during the 3 years until March 2021. Attributes of the conjoint analysis were administration routes and formulation (tablet, capsule, dry syrup, or inhalant), duration of administration, frequency of administration per day, and out-of-pocket expenses. We assumed the efficacy and safety to be equivalent among the antivirals. A logistic regression model was applied to the analysis. We also asked parents about their recent experiences with antiviral treatment for their child. RESULTS: We collected responses from 3161 eligible individuals. The mean age (standard deviation) of the children when taking the antivirals and percentage of female children were 8.27 (1.63) years old and 53.2%, respectively. The tablet was the most preferred formulation; the inconvenience costs for each administration route and formulation, relative to the tablet as zero, were Japanese yen (JPY) 515 (US dollar 4.61, as of October 2021) for the inhalant, JPY 775 for the capsule, and JPY 804 for the dry syrup. The inconvenience costs for 5 days relative to 1 day and for twice a day relative to once a day were JPY 2150 and JPY 399, respectively. CONCLUSION: Based on the conjoint analysis, a single-dose tablet antiviral was suggested to have the lowest inconvenience cost for pediatric patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN000044243.

Estimation of the cost of influenza antiviral medication guidance or support provided by healthcare professionals: a questionnaire survey in Japan.

AIMS: To estimate the cost of antiviral medication guidance and/or support from the perspective of healthcare professionals by administration route (oral or inhalant). METHODS: An online survey (December 2020) was conducted among physicians, pharmacists, and certified care workers. Those aged 20-64 years working in workplaces with experience of prescribing (physicians) or dispensing (pharmacists) antivirals for influenza, or having care service recipients who took antivirals (certified care workers) since October 2018, were selected through screening questions. The time required for guidance and/or support for drug administration was asked, and its monetary value was calculated by applying the Japanese average wage. Respondents who had a fear of infection while providing guidance and/or support were asked about the monetary value of this fear; the cost of fear was estimated from their responses and the percentage who reported such a fear. RESULTS: Responses were collected from 1,000 physicians, 1,000 pharmacists, and 642 certified care workers. The cost of the time for guidance and/or support in the entire workplace was estimated as JPY 244 (USD 2.14, as of October 2021) for oral antivirals and JPY 289 for inhalants among physicians, JPY 260 and JPY 428 among pharmacists, and JPY 555 and JPY 557 among certified care workers. The cost of fear was estimated to be JPY 965 for oral and JPY 1,361 for inhalants among physicians, JPY 756 and JPY 2,711 among pharmacists, and JPY 2,419 and JPY 2,837 among certified care workers. LIMITATIONS: Respondents might not be representative of Japanese society. The reliability of the results depends on whether the respondents accurately understood the questions and their truthfulness. CONCLUSIONS: Higher costs for guidance and/or support were suggested for inhalant antivirals in physicians and pharmacists compared to oral antivirals. For certified care workers, almost no difference in costs was suggested between administration routes.

A cost-effectiveness analysis of lusutrombopag for thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic liver disease in Japan.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Thrombocytopenia is a frequent hematological condition in chronic liver disease (CLD) patients increasing the risk of bleeding in patients undergoing invasive procedures. Without an alternative, clinical guidelines recommended the use of platelet transfusion (PT) prior to procedure to prevent this bleeding risk. Lusutrombopag (LUSU), an orally active, small-molecule thrombopoietin receptor agonist, was developed as an alternative to PT. The objective of this study was to evaluate a cost-effectiveness of LUSU as a potential alternative to PT in Japan. METHODS: A cost-effectiveness analysis of LUSU relative to PT was conducted by a simulation model consisting of a decision tree combined to Markov model. Quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were used as an indicator of efficacy, and the analysis was conducted from the Japanese public healthcare payer's perspective. The time horizon of the analysis was 50 years (a lifetime) and the discount rate was set at 2%. RESULTS: LUSU gained 6.1803 QALYs with an expected lifetime costs of 2 380 219 JPY compared to PT with 6.1712 QALYs gained and expected lifetime costs of 2 382 908 JPY. Thus, LUSU was deemed dominant compared with PT. Based on probabilistic analyses, the chance of LUSU being dominant and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio being below 5 million JPY/QALY was estimated at 51.8% and 78.3%, respectively, demonstrating the robustness of the results. CONCLUSIONS: LUSU was evaluated as an efficacious and cost-saving treatment option for Japanese CLD patients with thrombocytopenia who required a planned invasive procedure compared with PT and economically should be considered as an alternative treatment.