Background and aim: Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease is a common medical problem that places a significant financial burden on outpatient pharmaceutical expenditure. A substantial proportion of this expenditure can be attributed to the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of PPIs currently licensed in Italy in the acute treatment of reflux oesophagitis.
Methods: A decision analysis model that simulated the sequential management of reflux oesophagitis over the course of 8 weeks was constructed. Healing rates were derived from a published meta-analysis of PPIs for reflux oesophagitis. Costs of PPIs were based on retail prices in Italy, endoscopies and specialist (outpatient) visits were costed on the basis of public tariffs, and opportunity costs were calculated for general practitioner visits. The clinical effectiveness of a PPI was measured in terms of the proportion of patients healed at 8 weeks. An incremental cost-effectiveness analysis was performed, using omeprazole, the recognised 'gold standard' PPI in Italy, as the common comparator. The perspective of the analysis was the Italian National Health System (NHS). A sensitivity analysis was conducted in which the key parameters in the model were varied according to a Monte Carlo simulation of 1000 patients.
Results: Esomeprazole 40 mg/day was a dominant treatment option compared with omeprazole 20 mg/day (88.8% patients healed vs 82.2%, respectively; total treatment cost euro164.85 vs euro169.56, respectively (year of costing, 2002). Furthermore, on the basis of the 95% CIs generated by the Monte Carlo simulation, esomeprazole 40 mg/day appears to be more cost-effective than both lansoprazole 30 mg/day and pantoprazole 40 mg/day.
Conclusions: Esomeprazole 40 mg/day can be considered a cost-effective treatment option for the acute treatment of reflux oesophagitis in Italy.