OBJECTIVES

The cardiovascular (CV) benefit of once-weekly semaglutide has been proved in the CV outcome trial SUSTAIN-6, which showed that semaglutide significantly reduced the primary composite outcome (cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and nonfatal stroke) compared to placebo. The aim of this study was to evaluate the economic impact of preventing adverse CV outcomes by semaglutide compared to placebo in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with high CV risk in China.

METHODS

A cost calculation model was developed to compare the monetary impact of semaglutide to placebo based on CV events and complications, which included nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina, revascularization, hospitalization for heart failure, and complications of retinopathy and nephropathy. Data on incidence of CV events and complications was sourced from SUSTAIN-6. The costs composed of the components of healthcare (including medical cost only) and society (including medical cost, direct non-medical cost and indirect cost). The costs of CV events and complications in China were obtained from current literature and adjusted for inflation in 2019 using medical consumer price index and consumer price index retrieved from China Statistical Yearbook.

RESULTS

Regarding healthcare costs, semaglutide was associated with medical cost-saving of CNY 2,465 per patient per year, or CNY 1,749 saving in the first year, which was mainly due to reduce event of revascularization and nephropathy, and CNY 716 saving in the second year, when compared with placebo. With society costs, semaglutide reduced non-medical cost and indirect medical cost by CNY 68 and CNY 102 respectively. Collectively, semaglutide resulted in a total cost-saving of CNY 2,635 per patient per year compared with placebo.

CONCLUSIONS

In China, for T2D patients with high CV risk, semaglutide reduced the costs related to the reduction of CV events and complications compared to patients receiving placebo. Cost-saving mainly came from the reduction of medical cost.