Resource use and cost of treatment with voriconazole or conventional amphotericin B for invasive aspergillosis.

BACKGROUND: Voriconazole, a broad-spectrum triazole, has demonstrated significantly improved survival compared with conventional amphotericin B (CAB) as initial therapy for invasive aspergillosis (IA).

OBJECTIVE: To compare health care resource use and cost at 12 weeks following first-line treatment with voriconazole compared with CAB for IA using resource use data collected during a clinical trial.

METHODS: Days of hospitalization, intensive care, antifungal drug use, and outpatient care were collected during a large randomized, controlled trial of patients with IA receiving initial treatment with voriconazole or CAB. Unit costs based on published data sources were applied to healthcare use to estimate 12-week costs following initiation of therapy. Resource use and costs were compared for each treatment arm overall and by survival. The sensitivity of total costs to changes in healthcare use and unit costs was examined.

RESULTS: Total hospital days and intensive care unit (ICU) days were similar for voriconazole and CAB (total: 27.8 vs. 27.7, P=0.97 and ICU: 5.6 vs. 8.1, P=0.11). Among survivors, voriconazole was associated with similar numbers of total hospital days (29.8 vs. 32.0 days, P=0.54) to CAB, but fewer ICU days (3.9 vs. 8.2, P=0.03). For non-survivors, those treated with voriconazole had a similar number of total hospital days (23.0 vs. 21.8, P=0.73) and ICU days (9.8 vs. 7.9, P=0.44). Patients treated with voriconazole had significantly more days alive and out of the hospital than with CAB at 12 weeks (40.3 vs. 28.4 days, P<0.001). Total costs were similar with voriconazole compared with CAB ($78,860 vs. $83,857, P=0.51). Differences in cost were not sensitive to changes in the input parameter values.

CONCLUSIONS: Using voriconazole first-line for treatment of IA resulted in significantly fewer deaths and similar treatment costs. Hospital-free survival was significantly greater for patients initially treated with voriconazole.