OBJECTIVES: To determine the budget impact of introducing icosapent ethyl as an alternative treatment to best supportive care (BSC) in statin-treated adult patients with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) and recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS, defined as events occurring within 12 months prior to receiving icosapent ethyl or placebo) from a Catalonian healthcare perspective over a five-years’ time horizon.

METHODS: The budget impact analysis was added to an existing cost-effectiveness model (CEM). For the CEM, an established partitioned survival model structure with disease-specific health states was created to capture the long-term risk of major cardiovascular (CV) events through these health states: CV event-free, first CV event, post-first CV event, second CV event, post-second CV event, third or more CV events, post-third or more CV events, and death. Efficacy and safety outcomes were obtained from the REDUCE-IT trial. The eligible population was Catalan statin-treated adult patients (aged 45-79) with established CVD, elevated triglycerides and recent ACS, defined as events occurring within the 12 months prior to receiving treatment. Drug acquisition and clinical event costs (reported in 2023 EUR) were obtained from published sources and Spanish databases. The projected market uptakes for icosapent ethyl were 1.0%, 5.4%, 8.8%, 15.0% and 20.0% for years 1 to 5, respectively.

RESULTS: Budget impact analysis showed positive results for treatment with icosapent ethyl in patients with CVD and recent ACS. Given the projected uptake, the total five-year accumulated budget impact was estimated to be €4.6 million, with an annual average budget impact over 5 years of €924,459.

CONCLUSIONS: This budget impact analysis would predict a low annual average budget impact of less than €1 million for the studied population from the CatSalut’s perspective.