Kyoto, Japan -The number of cases of hyperlipidemia in Japan has been increasing, with an estimated 1.43 million patients diagnosed with hyperlipidemia in 2006. Despite the high prevalence of hyperlipidemia in Japan, the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) is less than half of that in western countries.
The cost-effectiveness of pravastatin for primary prevention of CAD may not be cost-effective in populations at both low and high cardiac risk in Japan. The objective of this study, “
Economic Evaluation of Pravastatin for Primary Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease Based on Risk Prediction from JALS-ECC in Japan,” was to assess the cost-effectiveness of pravastatin therapy in a population with hyperlipidemia for primary prevention of CAD in Japan.
A Markov transition model was used to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of pravastatin compared with no drug therapy. A hypothetical population from 45 to 75 years old was examined using the cardiac risk factors. ICERs of pravastatin therapy compared with no drug therapy were 9,680,000 yen per QALY in 55-year-old men and 8,648,000 yen per QALY in 65-year-old men with diabetes mellitus, hypertension (grade II), and smoking as cardiac risk factors.
Koji Kawakami, MD, PhD, Professor in Pharmacoepidemiology, Graduate School of Medicine and Public Health, Kyoto University and co-author of the paper says “Our study is the first cost-effectiveness study using risk prediction of CAD based on community cohorts without a history of CVD in Japan. Our results indicate that Pravastatin therapy was found not to be cost-effective compared with no-drug therapy in this study population. These findings are useful for further evaluation prioritizing the health policy for primary prevention in CVD area in Japan”
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