Intravenous iron therapy was predicted to be highly cost-effective or even cost-saving when used in high-risk, iron-deficient patients with heart failure (HF) in each of four different countries with different healthcare payment systems, in an analysis based on outcomes in the randomized AFFIRM-AHF trial.
Gains in quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) associated with IV iron therapy were driven mostly by fewer repeat hospitalizations for HF, and were consistent in models based on economic data from Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The hospitalization benefit and related savings on other care in patients who received injectable ferric carboxymaltose (FCM) more than offset the added cost of management in models based on the contrasting health economics standards of Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Although FCM wasn't cost-saving in the model based on Italy, it still would be considered highly cost-effective based on healthcare economic standards there, observed Phil McEwan, PhD, when reporting the analysis last week at HFA 2021. The annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC-HFA) was conducted both virtually and live in Florence, Italy.
"In addition to AFFIRM-AHF demonstrating that ferric carboxymaltose is well tolerated and effective, our study would suggest that it represents good value for money, as well," said McEwan, of Swansea University and Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
