Cost-Effectiveness of Empagliflozin in Patients With Diabetic Kidney Disease in the United States: Findings Based on the EMPA-REG OUTCOME Trial

Abstract

Rationale & objective: Benefits of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors on kidney outcomes have been demonstrated in clinical trials. Among patients with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular (CV) disease enrolled in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01131676), empagliflozin added to standard of care (SOC) reduced the risk of incident or worsening nephropathy compared with SOC alone. This analysis evaluated the cost-effectiveness of empagliflozin versus SOC alone in the subpopulation with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) from the perspective of US commercial insurers and Medicare.

Study design: Discrete event simulation model.

Setting & population: Patients with DKD in a US health care system.

Interventions: Empagliflozin 10 or 25mg with SOC versus SOC alone. SOC included glucose-lowering therapies and medications to treat CV risk factors.

Outcomes: Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (2020 US dollars per quality-adjusted life-year [QALY] gained). Costs and QALYs were discounted 3.0% per year.

Model, perspective, & time frame: Cost-effectiveness analysis, commercial insurers and Medicare perspective, lifetime horizon.

Results: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of empagliflozin with SOC versus SOC alone was $25,974 per QALY. Empagliflozin added 0.67 QALYs and $17,322 per patient over a lifetime horizon. Results were driven by fewer clinical events (including CV death, heart failure hospitalization, albuminuria progression, and a composite kidney outcome) experienced by patients receiving empagliflozin with SOC versus SOC alone. Results were sensitive to rates of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and heart failure hospitalization, as well as to drug costs and time horizon. Probabilistic sensitivity analyses indicated 91% of simulations at <$50,000 per QALY.

Limitations: The EMPA-REG OUTCOME study was not powered to assess treatment benefits in a subgroup and excluded patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate<30mL/min/1.73m².

Conclusions: Based on the EMPA-REG OUTCOME study, this cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that, for commercial insurers and Medicare, adding empagliflozin to SOC may be a cost-effective treatment option for patients with DKD.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness; Jardiance; United States; cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA); diabetic kidney disease (DKD); empagliflozin; sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i); type 2 diabetes.