Background: Overactive bladder (OAB) is defined as urinary urgency, usually with urinary frequency and nocturia. . The current treatment for OAB includes conservative management, surgery, and pharmacotherapy. Mirabegron is a new drug acting by the ß3-adrenoceptor agonism. This study aimed to review the cost-effectiveness of mirabegron in the treatment of OAB.
Areas covered: We searched published articles in electronic search databases. Ten studies were included in the qualitative analysis. Various antimuscarinics, including oxybutynin, fesoterodine, tolterodine, darifenacin, and trospium were compared with mirabegron. The results were evaluated and compared according to the quality-adjusted life-years (QALY), cost/year, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Of the ten studies in only three, mirabegron was not a cost-effective strategy. In seven cases, mirabegron was cost-effective.
Expert opinion: The cost-effectiveness of mirabegron was variable in different regions; however, most of the studies show the cost-effectiveness of mirabegron. Our study illustrates that mirabegron's ICER in comparison with its comparators is below the willingness to pay threshold even in the countries with low GDP/Capita. Our proposal for future economic studies for OAB pharmacotherapy is to compare different doses, formulations, and administration forms in a real-world context.
Keywords: Cost-effectiveness analysis; antimuscarinic agents; beta-3 adrenoceptor; economic evaluation; mirabegron; overactive bladder; systematic review.