Cost-effectiveness analysis of recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone alfa (r-hFSH) and urinary highly purified menopausal gonadotropin (hMG) based on data from a large German registry

This was a retrospective real-world evidence analysis of the costs per live birth for reference recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone alfa (r-hFSH-alfa) versus highly purified urinary human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG-HP), based on data from a German in vitro fertilization registry (RecDate). Pregnancy and live birth rates from the RecDate real-world evidence study over three complete assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles using the same gonadotropin drug were used as clinical inputs. Costs related to ART treatment and to drugs were obtained from public sources. Treatment with r-hFSH-alfa resulted in higher adjusted cumulative live birth rates versus hMG-HP after one (25.3% vs. 22.3%), two (30.9% vs. 27.5%), and three (31.9% vs. 28.6%) ART cycles. Costs per live birth were lower with r-hFSH-alfa versus hMG-HP after one ( euro 17,938 vs. euro 20,054), two ( euro 18,251 vs. euro 20,437), and three ( euro 18,473 vs. euro 20,680) ART cycles. r-hFSH-alfa was found to be a cost-effective strategy compared with hMG-HP over three cycles.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

This retrospective analysis compared the costs and outcomes of reference recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone alfa with highly purified urinary human menopausal gonadotropin in in vitro fertilization treatment, and found that the former had higher adjusted cumulative live birth rates and lower costs per live birth over three cycles.