Cost-effectiveness of valbenazine compared with deutetrabenazine for the treatment of tardive dyskinesia

Aims: To evaluate clinical and economic outcomes associated with valbenazine compared with deutetrabenazine in patients with tardive dyskinesia (TD) using a model that accounts for multiple dimensions of patient health status. Materials and methods: A discretely integrated condition event model was developed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of treatment with valbenazine and deutetrabenazine in a synthetic cohort of 1,000 patients with TD who were receiving antipsychotic medication to treat an underlying psychiatric disorder. Clinical inputs were derived from relevant clinical trials or from publicly available sources. Patients were assessed over 1 year using >= 50% improvement from baseline in Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) total score as the primary definition of response. Response at 1 year using Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC) score <= 2 was also assessed. Health outcomes included quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), life years, proportion responding to treatment at 1 year, and number of psychiatric relapses. Results: Regardless of the definition used for response, patients treated with valbenazine were more likely to have responded to treatment at 1 year, lived longer, and accrued more QALYs than patients who received deutetrabenazine. Using the AIMS response criterion, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $9,951/QALY for valbenazine compared with deutetrabenazine. By comparison, using the CGIC response criterion valbenazine dominated deutetrabenazine with valbenazine-treated patients accumulating more QALYs (3.4 vs 3.3 years) and incurring lower lifetime costs ($252,311 vs $283,208) than deutetrabenazine-treated patients. Limitations:There are no head-to-head trials of valbenazine and deutetrabenazine, so probabilities of response used in the model were calculated based on an indirect treatment comparison of results from individual trials with one drug or the other, using only those metrics reported across trials. Conclusions: In patients with TD, treatment with valbenazine is highly cost-effective compared with deutetrabenazine.

Automated summary

The study showed that in patients with TD, treatment with valbenazine was more cost-effective compared to deutetrabenazine, leading to higher response rates, longer lifespan, and increased quality-adjusted life years (QALYs).